Deja Vu
by Solia
Summary: What would have happened in the first film if the black cat HADN'T deja-vued itself. Another production brought to you by Solia.
1. Glitch

TITLE: Deja Vu 

RATING: PG-13

AUTHOR: Sólia

SUMMARY: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events... But will it lead to the same result as the movie?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I wrote this a while ago, and it's one of my better ones. I hope you think so. Please read. If you choose to review, please be nice – I'd appreciate it, thanks. :)

Chapter one – Glitch

The black cat walked past that door and shook itself, like cats do. Neo, walking up the stairs behind Trinity, looked away for just a moment, to find the railing and to place his hand onto it. He looked back at the cat, but it was fine, just disappearing from sight behind the doorframe.

Black cats could be either good luck or bad luck in different cultures.

He followed the others further up the stairs, but, suddenly, there was the sound of gunshots upstairs. Where Mouse was.

Everyone stopped and stared upwards. Had Mouse escaped? The gunshots ceased, but that may not be a good thing.

A phone rang. In a flash, Trinity had it out in her hand and beside her ear.

"Tank," she said. It was hard to read her expression through her dark glasses as she listened. "Did Mouse get out okay? What-" She stopped and looked down as the doors, a few storeys below, slammed open. A dozen or more armed police came barging in. "We've found them," she said grimly. She hung up the phone and nodded at the next flight of stairs, signalling for them all to keep going while she told them what was going on. "They've cut the hardline," she explained. "Mouse got out the window unharmed, but Tank thinks we'll have a harder time getting out ourselves."

"No, really?" Switch asked sarcastically as she jogged up the stairs. Cypher glanced over the railing for a moment to check on the progress of the police. They were already up to the first storey flight of stairs, only two levels below the rebels.

Neo, taking up the rear of the line, was the only one to notice the man drop down from the level above and land beside him. He didn't react fast enough. The agent clenched his fists around Neo's throat in an iron death-grip. It was too strong and ruthless to be human. He couldn't breathe. He tried to pry the impossible fingers from his neck but it was useless.

"Tri-in...t..." he managed to gasp out, although he had been trying to say Trinity's whole name. She must have heard, because she slowed down, and looked behind her, but then stopped completely and turned in surprise. Everyone else noticed and stopped.

Morpheus, their captain and the one in front, called out to Trinity to help Neo. She was the only one close enough to do anything.

She was instantly at Neo's side. She grabbed his arm while she kicked the agent sharply in the head. In the moment that the agent released his hold a little, Trinity pulled Neo away, hard, and they both stumbled back.

"Move, Neo!" Morpheus shouted from the front. Neo walked slowly backwards as the agent advanced on them. Trinity bravely stepped up in a challenge. Immediately the agent (Brown, she would tell him later) kicked out at her, and she blocked.

But within seconds she was pinned against the wall, with nowhere to move. Brown aimed a heavy, fatal punch at her head, but – thank God – she moved to the side just in time. Annoyed, Agent Brown grabbed her and tossed her to the other side. Unfortunately, the other side was the empty space in the middle of the building. Trinity was thrown over the balustrade and she fell down, disappearing from sight, without so much as a cry.

By now Morpheus was at Neo's side, and his eyes widened as his second-in-command vanished from sight. Brown ignored the other rebels and straightened his tie, before leaping off the stairs after her. There was no hope for her now.

Captain Morpheus was as dead silent as his crew for the next second, but then he got his act together and turned to them.

"Let's go," he ordered. He sounded severely dispirited, and no wonder. But Neo wasn't going to condemn Trinity to death. He turned to where she had disappeared and started over, but someone grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Forget it, Neo, it's too late," Cypher said. Neo stared at him. "She's gone."

Tank had told Neo how Cypher obsessed over Trinity, lusted over her. This man would probably even claim to love her, and yet he wouldn't do anything at all to help her? No wonder she wasn't interested.

Neo pulled himself free and ran over to the railing. He could see Trinity and the agent battling it out on the bottom black-and-white tiled floor. She was alive for now.

"Neo, don't! You are the One, I can't let you kill yourself!" Morpheus said urgently. The police were still barging up the stairs – they were ignoring the combatants below and were focussing on their jobs.

Shaking his head, Neo glanced at the police, hurrying towards them. Switch and Cypher turned and ran up the stairs, escaping. Apoc wasn't far behind them. Morpheus waited another few moments, not wanting to see Neo go.

But Neo knew that it didn't matter even if he did. The Oracle, whom he had just visited, had informed him that he was, in fact, not the famous, heroic Chosen One people seemed to think he was. And if he wasn't this prophesised legend, but just some ordinary guy, then who was to say that his life was worth any more than Trinity's? Out of everyone he had met so far outside of the Matrix, it was her that he felt closest to. It was her that he could relate to, talk to, question, despite her cold, reserved shell.

It was her he'd die for.

And he wouldn't let her die if there was something he could do to prevent it.

He jumped over the railing, not allowing himself to worry. _Free my mind, free my mind, I'll live, it isn't real_... And he landed, three storeys below, quite well, having bent his knees beforehand. Neo stood from his crouched position and turned to face Brown and Trinity. He glanced up. Morpheus had followed his crew's example and was bolting up the stairs after Apoc. Good, they were safe.

Before Neo reached them, Brown grabbed Trinity by the shoulder firmly and drove his fist into her abdomen, around her bottom rib. She gasped, and her chop lost its power, barely touching the agent's neck. He pushed her away, and she stumbled and tripped, landing on the ground on her good side. Ruthlessly, Agent Brown kicked her again, twice, where he had just punched her. She curled up in pain.

Growling with anger, Neo punched the agent in the back of the head. Brown turned to him with an answering blow, but he managed to avoid it. He blocked the next two as well, but copped a heavy kick in the side that he hadn't seen coming. He did his best not to glance at Trinity for fear that the agent would recall the real reason he was on this level and go back to her. She was scrambling for something on the floor.

Neo avoided one punch but received the next, then heard someone call out his name. He looked over at Trinity and met her eyes. She slid a dusty steak knife across the tiles toward him with her left hand. He stopped it with his foot and, when he ducked to avoid a strong kick, he scooped it up. By the time Neo had straightened, Trinity had gotten her hands on another knife, also dusty. She was getting them from a small hole in the wall near where she lay, just above the floor. She sat up as best she could, drew back her arm and tossed the knife. It swirled through the air and went right through Agent Brown's neck, severing his spine and cutting his throat. It was sickening, but the blooded tip of the knife could be seen protruding from the front. Trinity was obviously a good shot. For just a moment, the agent did nothing, and Neo drove his own knife into Brown's chest, approximately where the heart of his host should be.

Agent Brown crumbled to the ground. Some sort of green electrical current surged through him, before the familiar face and the brown suit disappeared, to be immediately replaced by the body of a policeman.

Neo would have stared at the innocent corpse for hours if Trinity hadn't have tried to roll over then. He pulled his eyes away from the stabbed, bleeding, fifty-something-year-old armed police and moved over to Trinity. He crouched down beside her.

"You okay?" he asked quickly. She gave him a sour look.

"I'm fine," she said. He knew that her irritation was more directed at herself than at him, so he chose to ignore it. He let her try to stand once by herself, but she was having a bit of trouble, so Neo carefully helped her up, his left hand on her left shoulder and his other hand on the hip closest to him. Her injury was on her right side, so he was very cautious not to bump her.

"Where do we go?" Neo asked her, looking around. Should they go up all those stairs, and risk getting caught by the police up there? Or should they try going out the front where there were untold numbers of police?

"Take his breastplate," Trinity said, pointing at the dead agent-turned-guard. Neo left her standing and quickly pulled the knife free, before removing the armoured plate and putting it on. He also took the helmet. He walked back over to her.

"I'd get out the front wearing this, but what about you?" he asked. She looked around. There were no other dead policemen lying conveniently around, and therefore no disguises. The feds would recognise her immediately.

"I can try going upstairs," she said doubtfully. "I didn't hear Morpheus or the others killing anyone, so I guess there won't be many uniforms free, but..."

"A hostage."

"What?" Trinity asked.

"A hostage. You can be a hostage," Neo said. The idea was forming in his head, and it was a good one.

"What, are you just going to walk out there with a gun to my head and threaten to kill me if they don't let you go freely? That's stupid, they'd _pay_ you to kill me, if they didn't do it themselves-"

"No, not _my_ hostage," Neo interrupted. "Morpheus's hostage. I'll tell them I found you here, and that Morpheus and the others had been holding you here." He led her to the stairs and sat her down.

"Hmm, that sounds believable. Morpheus capturing his own lieutenant and holding her hostage." She sounded very sarcastic. "Neo, I still won't get through unnoticed."

"Yes, you will," he answered, taking her hand and tipping a small amount of dirt and dust from the floor into her palm. She just stared at it. There was still some dirt on Neo's own hand, and he rubbed it onto Trinity's cheek. She wasn't impressed.

"Hey!" she said, squirming away.

"Rub some dirt and stuff onto one side of your face and then you can walk beside me with your head on my shoulder," Neo explained. Realisation dawned in her unshaded eyes, and she didn't protest even once against dirtying the left side of her face. A few moments later she looked the part perfectly – her glasses, which she wore in every filed photograph of herself owned by the feds, broken and lying somewhere near the dead policeman, dirt smudged on her face. Neo held her in the same fashion as before and walked over to the door. She dropped her head to his shoulder and half-closed her eyes as he pushed the door open and stepped out into the sun, onto the small balcony. A few guns pointed at him, but since he wore black, the armoured breastplate and the black helmet, they quickly relaxed.

"Who's that?" someone of importance asked, striding forward and nodding at Trinity. She tensed a tiny bit, but only Neo noticed. He decided to be respectful to this man, whom he supposed was one of his superiors.

"Her name's... Trixie... Anderson, sir," he said, choosing a name close enough to her own for her first, and the first surname that came to his head – his, or the name that had once been his, when he was Thomas Anderson. "She was a hostage of the fugitives within the building. I have already questioned her, sir, and I believe that she would be of no use for further evidence."

"I'll be the judge of that," Mr Superior said pompously, ruining Neo and Trinity's chances of escaping very quickly. At Trinity, whom he thought was some innocent little girl, he smiled with what he must have thought was a kind smile, and asked, "Miss Anderson, how did you come to be inside this building?"

'I travelled along phone lines' Neo hid his smile as he thought of the honest answer, and how this man would react if he heard it. Of course, he'd probably lock Trinity up as a mental case.

"I don't remember," she said softly, not looking at anyone. "I got hit on the head. When I woke up, I was in a dark room. I was there for a long time. Then this man got me out." She closed her eyes.

"You see, she has given us hard evidence," Mr Superior-who-is-up-himself said. "This proves that the fugitives have been inside this building for quite a while." He smiled at her again. His smile was meant to be kind, but it was scary enough to frighten any child he might chose to grin at. "Do you want to go home, Miss Anderson?"

'I live on a hovercraft. If you can drive me there, you're a genius'.

"I live a few blocks away. Can this man drive me there now?" Trinity asked instead.

"Not now, Miss, but soon-" Mr Superior-who-is-up-himself began, but she must have gotten desperate then, as she pretended to burst into sobs, hiding her face further. Neo awkwardly patted her on her back.

"I have two children at home!" Trinity whispered. "They're all by themselves!"

"Two children, alone, sir," Neo repeated. He waited, holding his breath hopefully. How could this man insist that she stay here while there were two obviously young children waiting alone in a house? The imaginary children couldn't be older than early primary school age, judging by Trinity's own age.

"Yes, fine," Mr Superior-who-is-up-himself relented. "Trooper, please drive this woman to her home and record her street and street number. And get her checked over for injuries."

"Yes, sir," Neo said quickly, leading Trinity away as fast as he could. He headed straight for the further-most police vehicle, the car right at the back. Since the important guy was still watching him, he opened the passenger side door and got Trinity to sit down in the seat. He crouched in front of her and met her eyes.

"That worked," he said. "You should have been an actor."

She said nothing, and remained completely expressionless, as she held eye contact.

"Excuse me, I heard you needed medical assistance," a man said as he walked up. Trinity glanced at him, giving him her cool, daring look that would send most men running away or to her, depending on their bravery and tastes.

"No, I'm fine," she answered coldly. The doctor hesitated, but after a quick glance at the important guy, he moved closer.

"I'm kind of under orders," he said. "Just a quick check. I swear it won't take long. Excuse me, trooper," he added, giving Neo a slight shove out of the way. Trinity never stopped glaring at the man as he nervously checked her head for injuries caused by the imaginary blow.

"I guess you're fine then," he began, but when she sat up straighter, she winced from the pain that came from her bottom rib. "Maybe not. Can I ask, where does it hurt?"

"That's the best question to use on _three-year-olds_," she said scathingly, and refused to answer. Neo, not wanting to get into an argument and also wanting to know what was wrong with her, spoke up.

"Her bottom right rib."

Trinity fixed Neo with a dangerous, very pissed off glare as the doctor asked her to raise her right arm. She turned back to the man.

"I have two small children waiting at home by themselves," she said, but it wasn't quite as believable without the false tears and the weakened, supported posture. The doctor nodded.

"I know, but I have to check you for injury," he said. "I'm Stephen, by the way. Did I introduce myself before?"

Hmm – he was the kind who, despite being completely terrified, was interested in the off-limits women. The ones like Trinity.

"No, and I don't care," she snapped. Stephen sighed.

"Please raise your arm, Miss... um..." he trailed off, waiting for her to fill him in.

"Anderson," she said darkly.

"Thankyou. Miss Anderson, would you please-"

Trinity raised her arm irritably before Stephen could finish. Neo hid a smile as she kept her stony, unnerving gaze on the doctor. Stephen nervelessly laid a shaking hand on her side, much too high – his hand rested just under her arm, beside her breast. She wasn't happy.

"Get your hands off me!" she snarled, giving him a shove him away. Stephen fell back on his butt and looked up in surprise.

"I have to check you over for injuries!" he insisted. He got to his feet and dusted himself off, muttering as he made sure no one had seen.

"You know that I have no injury here!" Trinity said angrily, pointing to where his hand had been. Stephen swallowed. "I'm fine. I want to go home. Bob, take me home."

Neo realised that she was talking to him, and started to go around to the drivers' side.

"But I have orders...!" Stephen said weakly as Neo climbed into the front seat. Trinity slammed her door shut and glared frostily out the front window. She did absolutely nothing as Neo backed the car onto the road and drove off. He was too scared of a major explosion to speak, unless she started the conversation.

"Drive around behind the building, Tank said something about a window," she said finally. Neo nodded immediately and did as she said. There was nobody there.

He took the car for a useless, time-consuming trip around the block as Trinity took out her phone and dialled the _Nebuchadnezzar_, the hovercraft on which they lived and worked. Tank, the operator, usually answered.

"Tank, where are they?" There was a pause as she listened to the operator back in the real world. "And how do you propose I get there? I have no idea where that is..." Another pause. "Got it." Pause again. "No, Tank! Wait!" She made a noise of frustration as she hung up. "He said he's got some seriously bad news, and it's going to require me and the rest of us back on this ship as soon as possible. He won't tell me what happened. He said the others will tell me. Oh, and they're at this old cottage a few k's south from here. I'll give you directions."

The drive was only about five minutes long. At one point, they had to stop at a traffic light. Neo glanced across at Trinity.

"Are you sure you're fine?" he asked after a moment. She sighed with frustration, and he turned back to the road. He didn't want to upset her, and it didn't sound like she was going to answer, so he said nothing.

"No, I think I broke my ribs," she said finally. "More than one."

When they arrived at the tiny, dirty little vintage home Trinity was still in a bad mood. She slammed her door furiously and practically stormed up to the house. Neo followed her quieter, more subtle. She opened the door without a care and walked right in. By the time Neo got in, Cypher had used the exit. Mouse, Switch and Apoc were still there, not looking very happy.

"What kept you?" Mouse asked, hanging the phone back up.

"Some arsehole doctor," Trinity answered, rubbing her cheek vigorously to get rid of the dirt. She closed her eyes for a moment and scrubbed harder, but then they flew open. "Where's Morpheus?"


	2. Construct

TITLE: Deja Vu 

RATING: PG-13

AUTHOR: Sólia

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events... But will it lead to the same result as the movie? Neo and Trinity have escaped the building alive, and have met up with their crew, but where's Morpheus? And what's going on in the Construct?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

MircoChips: Sorry about that Cypher thing – I hadn't really noticed that. I just assumed that everyone would figure he'd gone with everyone else, since I don't really mention anyone up until then.

MistyX: Thanks for the suggestion. I might use that in a different fiction, but Déjà Vu has already actually been finished. I'm just unloading each chapter every week or so. Rather than all at once. Thanks anyway, though. I appreciate it. :)

Q, Kal Torak, November, Realitys Independence, whispering silence and Whispers of Death: I'm glad you liked it.

Chapter two – Construct

Cypher opened his eyes and stared at Dozer. He sat up, rubbing his bald head as though he was very upset by the capture of Morpheus by the agents. Of course, he was the one who had planned it, so no, he wasn't remotely upset. Unfortunately, none of his fellow crewmembers had been killed in the surprise attack, so he'd have to do it all himself. Oh, well. He got the crowbar he had left beside his chair that morning before they had hacked into the Matrix to take Neo to the Oracle.

Dozer, the gentle giant of the hovercraft, looked up in light surprise when he saw the crowbar in Cypher's hands. He barely saw it coming. Within the second, the heavy metal tool had collided with Dozer's head, knocking him senseless. Lying on the floor, the big, dark-coloured Zion-born man scrambled for something to defend himself with, but it was too late for him. Cypher slammed the bar into him again and again, until he was completely sure that he was dead.

"What have you done?" Tank asked in a soft, devastated voice from behind him.

"The same thing I'm gonna do to you," Cypher answered, swinging the crowbar around and hitting Tank, the younger of the brothers, in the jaw. Without a sound, the operator fell to the floor. Dead as a doornail.

It was done then. Well, at least, half-done. There was still Apoc, Switch, Mouse, Neo and Trinity to die yet. And those last two, he knew, he would definitely enjoying killing.

----

"Why isn't the phone ringing?" Mouse complained. Neo tried not to look at Trinity. She was now beyond furious – she was miserable, too. The agents had attacked the five escaping rebels as they'd climbed down from the building, eventually capturing Morpheus and almost killing Apoc before he and the others had gotten away.

"We'll get him back," Apoc said weakly. He had severe injuries, judging not only by his bad limping, bloody cuts and bruises but also by the way he kept spitting mouthfuls of blood into the corner of the dusty, tea-house-like cottage.

"Tank is getting slack," Mouse decided.

"He's just busy at the moment," Switch said irritably. "Maybe Cypher tripped over when he got out of his chair, and hurt himself? One can only hope..."

"That's silly," Trinity said, looking up. Switch went quiet, although it was obvious from her pale eyes that she couldn't believe that Trinity might stick up for Cypher. Neo couldn't, either. He had been sure that she was very unhappy with him, but maybe not...

"It would be better if he died," she said with a smirk. Switch and Mouse grinned at her surprising humour. No one had expected her to show it then.

"No," she added after a moment. "I shouldn't wish death on anyone."

----

Switch, the formidable looking white blonde woman lying in that chair, was peacefully unconscious, unaware. She could have no idea that Cypher was currently staring at her with dislike, recalling all the times she had told him that he would never be good enough for Trinity, that Trinity was meant for a higher purpose than the likes of him.

Even if she was right, there was no real need for her to remind him of that, right? It was cruel.

But she wouldn't do it again, ever. Cypher was going to kill her for all of those times she had dashed his hopes, for all the times she had smirked at him when Trinity had been with that Neo.

He reached behind her head and his fingers found the plug that connected Switch's body to her consciousness within the Matrix. It was the only thing connecting the two parts – body and mind – to one another.

He didn't want to wait another second. Pressing down the locks on the sides of the metal inlet, he ripped it out. Killing Switch instantly.

----

"Why not wish death on someone who haunts you like Cypher does?" Switch asked defiantly. "I'm not afraid to die. I never have been and I never will be. Death is just another path."

She suddenly crumpled to the worn peach carpet without a sound, and lay still in the most awkward, uncomfortable position possible. Neo wondered how she could stand to lie like that.

"Switch?" Mouse asked uneasily. The woman dressed in white, lying perfectly still on the floor, didn't respond.

"Is she okay?" Neo asked, looking around at the others. Trinity said nothing, but stared down at her crewmate. Very slowly, Apoc knelt down beside Switch and touched her arm worriedly. He gave her a gentle shove, but she still didn't move.

"What's wrong with her?" Mouse demanded in a scared voice. He was young and as non-knowledgable as Neo, and instantly Neo felt a kinship with him – they were both new to this, unseasoned, and hopelessly lost.

"Switch?" Apoc murmured, rolling her onto her side. Her pale face was slack and unmoving, and her equally pale eyes were still and staring. She wasn't breathing. "Switch?"

"I know what happened," Trinity said softly, very slowly. All eyes turned to her, but she didn't say nor do anything else, except to share a disbelieving, almost haunted look with Apoc, who also knew whatever it was.

"Feel free to share this revelation with us at any time you find appropriate," Mouse said in annoyance. The phone, beside him, rang. "About time." With a final scared look at Switch, he answered the exit. He disappeared into the line, his RSI being transported away. The phone hung loose on its cord. When the others made no move to do so, Neo hesitantly hung it up onto its cradle.

He wanted to ask what was going on, but the two longer-serving members of the crew just held each other's horrified, knowing gazes. After a few seconds, however, Neo felt a need to interrupt.

"What happened to Switch?" he asked awkwardly. Trinity's cool blue eyes flicked to Switch, lying still on the floor beside Apoc.

"She's dead, Neo," she answered, without so much as sparing him a glance. He knew that she wasn't as shocked as he had at first expected because of her perfectly even tone and the fact that she addressed him in her answer.

The exit, a little, old-fashioned phone on an antique table, rang again. Apoc, standing but never taking his brown eyes from the dead woman on the floor, reached to answer.

"Stop!" Trinity said sharply, causing him to draw back his hand. "You know just as well as I do that something is going on here. Tank never takes this long between calls."

"Trinity, if I wait that long again, I won't have the strength to answer it," Apoc said, only slightly joking.

"I'll find out what's going on," she said. Neo knew she would never want to put any of her crewmembers in danger. She would rather put herself in it first. She moved toward the phone, but Apoc grabbed it and held the receiver above his head, out of her reach.

"I'll find out what's going on," he said. He spat his mouthful of blood into the corner. "I'm expendable."

Neo watched silently as Trinity tried to grab the phone, but Apoc held it to his ear and held her back with one outstretched arm, then disappeared, his body dissolving into individual coding at a time. The phone dropped and bounced on the curled cord. With an exasperated sigh and a muttered curse, Trinity bent over, picked it up and slammed it onto the cradle. She was under a lot of stress.

Frustrated and angry, she started pacing the small room, acting as though the body of Switch, or, indeed, Neo, didn't exist.

"Trinity?"

At his hesitant word, she turned instantly, so quickly he thought she would lose her balance. But she never lost her balance.

"Yes?" she asked. She sounded too normal for someone who had watched her friend and work partner die, and who had earlier assisted in killing someone. Assisted _him_. For the first time, Neo actually thought about that. He had killed someone today, in self-defence, yes, but still, he hadn't even given it one guilty thought. What kind of person had he become?

"I killed him," he murmured under his breath.

"What?" He had forgotten that he had gotten Trinity's attention.

"What happened to Switch?" Neo asked, louder so that she would hear.

"She was unplugged," Trinity answered, turning and continuing her pacing. "Someone took out the plug without exiting her from the Matrix first. It's a sure way to kill someone. And a sure way to land yourself in the prison in Zion."

"Who-"

"How should I know?" she asked, not angrily. Her head snapped around to the phone as it rang again. She checked her pocket for her mobile phone. "Um... I don't..."

She was having some sort of internal debate. She couldn't decide whether to risk him by leaving him here and finding out what was happening on the ship or risk him by sending him back first.

"You choose," she decided finally. Neo stared at the phone as he lifted it off the cradle. Should he answer it, or hand it to her? He heard a car pull up outside and urgently thrust it at her. Trinity glanced at the door with a calculating look, then pushed his arm away. When Neo still refused to answer it, she grasped his hand and forced the phone against his ear.

"Just go," she ordered as he left her.

After being sucked along the phone line, Neo expected to wake up in the _Nebuchadnezzar_, but instead, he found himself standing in the never-ending whiteness that was the Construct with the bewildered-looking Apoc and Mouse for company.

"What's going on?" he asked. Mouse didn't answer. He was impatiently waiting for someone to answer the call he was making on his mobile phone.

"No one's answering," he said. He hung up the phone and dropped it back into his pocket. "I don't get it. Tank called me to warm me of the hardline being cut, so he was social then, but where he is now, I have no clue."

"Cypher isn't here," Apoc pointed out dejectedly. He was sitting on what had to be the floor, although there was no way to distinguish between the walls, the floor or the distant ceiling of this infinite place. "He might have been the one to kill Switch. I can't believe she's dead. Right after she said that little thing about not being scared to die, too." He was taking it hard.

"So she '_died_''?" Mouse demanded. "How? It was like she just got some disease, and then all of a sudden – dead. What happened?"

Apoc stayed silent.

"Trinity said that Switch was unplugged," Neo told Mouse. The boy's eyes widened.

"Christ," he muttered. He looked around. "When is she joining the party, anyway? She always knows what to do."

"Next. I wish we could contact her to tell her what's happening. She's pretty stressed out," Neo said.

"I'll call her before she gets stuck here, too," Mouse said suddenly. Apoc didn't answer. His breathing was a little laboured, and his eyes were closed. If they didn't get him out soon, he'd die.

----

So the little captives in the Construct were trying to contact Trinity in the Matrix. Cypher had to get her out anyway, or the police who had just pulled up in the driveway of the cottage'd catch her. That would ruin his drawn-out punishment plans for her. The trouble was, he wasn't very fast at taking people out of the Matrix and working with the phone, unless he was organising a timer, like he would later on.

He rang the exit. He watched her on the screen, his eyes glued to the array of green coded symbols that represented Trinity. She didn't answer right away. She was uncertain. Then the door burst open and she grabbed the phone before the police could see her.

"Perfect."

----

She appeared right beside Mouse, who was still dialling her number. Neo looked glad to see her, but she knew that he didn't want her stuck in the Construct, too.

"Great. What's going on?" she asked. Her eyes took in everything, from the infinite whiteness and Mouse's mobile phone, to Neo standing beside the dying Apoc.

"No clue," Mouse answered. Normally he was really bright and cheery, but now he was worried and dull. Poor boy. Neo looked just as confused and worried. She didn't like seeing him upset. He didn't look as cute.

"Why are we here?" Trinity asked. No one answered, because her phone rang. She answered it quick as a flash.

"Hello, Trinity." Cypher?

"Cypher? Where's Tank?" she asked into the phone. Neo looked up at her, and Mouse and Apoc went silent.

"You know, for the longest of times-" Cypher began, but she wasn't in the mood for long-winded answers.

"I asked a simple question," she snapped. He was silent for a moment. Then:

"Dead."

"What?" Trinity demanded.

"Dead, like Dozer and Switch," Cypher said. He sounded gleeful, the sick ass.

"How could you?" she accused.

"Hey, I never actually said I did it." But it sounded like it. "I just said they were dead. I trust that you already know about Switch?"

"Get us the hell out of here," Trinity told him. He gave an honestly amused laugh.

"Why would I want to do that?" he asked her delicately.

"It's an order," she said harshly. Apoc looked up. He knew that she never asserted her leadership unless she had to.

"An order? Whoa, wait one second while we sort out our priorities," Cypher suggested. "I'm the one with the power here. If I were so inclined, I could just press these locks down... and remove this here plug, right from your head."

"Get away from me!" she shouted. Mouse, Apoc and Neo jumped.

"Listen here. I'm going to set a timer on this computer and come and pay you guys a visit. That means that I'll automatically wake up in, say... five minutes." She could hear him tapping a key five times. "Maybe seven." Two more distant taps. "Keep in mind that if you were to kill me, you'd have no way whatsoever of getting out of there, so don't touch. We'll arrange a deal in my visit. Clear?"

"Crystal," Trinity answered scathingly. She hung up and pocketed the phone, turning away from the others so that they wouldn't question her.

----

Cypher double-checked the timer and other settings. In seven minutes he would be out of there. He could arrange some kind of half-ass deal with them, which would result in them dying. As much as he would like to have Trinity to himself, it would never really happen, so, yes, after one kiss, she, too, would die. Unless she could kill one of the others and answer his question – did she believe that Neo was the One?

He was glad that after pulling the plug on Switch he had reminded himself to wait before killing the others. He wanted to see Apoc suffer first, for that time he had actually threatened Cypher for 'stalking Trinity'. Mouse was just a stupid, annoying boy, but he was going to die, too.

And Neo was sure gonna get it...

He laid himself down in his chair and retrieved the head-jack needle from behind his headrest. Very carefully, he slipped it into his head and left it when the locks held it. He reached up to the touch screen beside him and pressed 'load', and then the real world disappeared. He opened his eyes inside the Construct next to Neo.

"Honey, I'm home," he said with a grin. Neo and Mouse glared at him, Apoc did nothing, but Trinity strode up to him.

"What the hell is going on up in here?" she demanded, tapping him hard on the forehead. "With Morpheus gone, you obey MY orders."

"No, baby, you got it all wrong," Cypher said with a smile. "You see, power isn't a rank. Power is the ability to take life. So right now, I'm the one with the power."

"True power is when you are given the chance to take a life but you choose not to," Trinity snapped. She was furious. Even Mouse and Neo were watching her rather than Cypher now, perhaps figuring her to be the more dangerous. "If that be the case, then you have no power whatsoever."

She always knew just how to tick people off.

"Whatever. I've just come to cut a deal with you 'powerful' people," Cypher said with a smirk. She narrowed her eyes. She was funny when she was mad.

"What do you want?" she asked. Obviously all of her self-control was going into this effort not to hurt him.

"Oh, many things," he answered, starting to circle them carelessly. "And if you want to live, you're going to do exactly as I say. Clear?"

"Crystal clear," Trinity said again in the same tone as last time.

"First thing. Hand over your guns," he said, opening one hand to them. Apoc, breathing heavily and painfully, yanked his guns free and slid them along the floor. Cypher picked them up and pocketed them. "Anyone else?"

The others shook their heads – well, at least, Neo and Mouse did. Trinity just glared daggers at him.

"Good. Next thing. Trinity." He turned to her. "I asked you a question once, and you never answered me. It didn't matter then, but now your life depends on it. Yes or no, darling."

He waited for her answer. Did she believe that Neo was this all-powerful One? She had never believed anything so ludicrous before, but maybe this was different. She had a definite, obvious interest in the guy, one that really got to Cypher. But her answer...

"I'm not sure I understand," she said smoothly, in her maddeningly calm voice. Cypher took one threatening step forward, but it would take more than that to intimidate her. She understood just fine.

"I think you do. Yes or no – do you believe in all of Morpheus's crap about the One?" At the mention of this, Neo blinked. "Do you believe that this guy could possibly be some fairytale hero? No lies."

Everyone, even Apoc, stared at Trinity. She was silent, and her expression was perfectly even, but she was doing some serious thinking.

"Yes, I do," she said after about thirty seconds.

That complicated things. That gave Neo an advantage in this war for Trinity, not that he seemed to know that he was a contender. It was a messy love triangle as it was – Cypher wanted Trinity, Trinity wanted Neo... Neo just wanted to get out of there.

"Right then," Cypher said, taking out one of the guns. "Then I guess it would be impossible for me to pull this trigger?"


	3. Trapped

TITLE: Deja Vu

RATING: PG-13

AUTHOR: Sólia

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events... But will it lead to the same result as the movie? Cypher has trapped Neo, Trinity, Mouse and fatally injured Apoc in the Construct of their own ship. He's killed Tank and Dozer, so without him, there's no way out. The agents have Morpheus, and Cypher has a gun pointed at Neo's chest. What does Cypher want?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I can't continue this further until I've finished The Best Homework Excuse Ever, the fiction I'm co-writing with my friend Lady Delerith, as some characters from that make appearances in this story.

And thanks to my reviewers.

Chapter three – Trapped

"I guess it would be," Trinity said coolly. Neo didn't like the way this was going. There was a gun pointed at his chest, and Trinity appeared to have faith that he would somehow dodge the bullets. And how was he meant to do that? He wasn't the One, but he couldn't say that now.

Cypher's finger squeezed the trigger, but Trinity viciously kicked the gun upwards, diverting the shot into the white distance. When he lowered the gun to try again, she stood directly in front of Neo, a shield. A crazy shield.

"You aren't going to kill him," she said in her commanding voice. "You're going to put the gun away and organise a deal like a civilised human being."

"Who's to say I won't kill you to get you out of my way?" Cypher asked. Him and his mind-games – they were both driving Neo insane.

"You're not done with me yet," Trinity answered simply. Cypher grinned.

"Clever," he said. He didn't put the gun away, but he lowered it to his side. "Here's the deal, Trin. You do a few things for me, and I do the same amount of things for you. Barter system. Savvy?"

"What?"

"Means, 'you get it?'" Cypher said quickly.

"I suppose I do," she decided carefully. Neo knew that she was under a lot of pressure to read between the lines of everything Cypher said. She was their negotiator – she was making the deals, and had to make sure she didn't agree to anything stupid.

"So what're you gonna do?" Mouse asked. He was standing right beside Neo.

"I'll let, say, one person live per thing you do for me," Cypher said easily.

"What about your stupid question? I'm guessing that since you were so desperate for my answer, you'd count that," Trinity said tightly. "What was that about, anyway?"

"Telling me where your badly misplaced loyalties lie gives you the reward of Mouse's life. He's gonna live."

Neo felt Mouse breathe a sigh of relief beside him.

"Now, I only want two more things... Hey, that means that only two more people can live..." Cypher said suggestively.

"Neo and Apoc," Trinity said without even the slightest falter. Neo had always admired her, but someone had to have a lot of guts to condemn themselves to death. He wanted to speak up but didn't.

"Got it. I should really have downloaded some chairs... Anyway, for Apoc..." Cypher's small blue eyes lit up as he got the perfect idea. "Apoc for a kiss."

"Excuse me?" Trinity asked disbelievingly.

"You heard."

"Me? Kiss _you_?"

"Too right."

"No. I won't kiss you," she said flatly. "That's vile."

"Okay then, you can kiss Apoc – when he's dead," Cypher said with a shrug, taking the gun out again. Immediately Trinity's eyes widened as she realised that he was going to die _now_.

"No, wait!" she said. Cypher turned back to her. Neo glanced at Apoc, lying wheezing on the ground. It would probably be more humane to kill the poor guy. He was in serious physical and mental pain.

Trinity boldly stepped forward. Cypher lowered the gun and stared at her as if all of his dreams had come true at once. She took a deep breath, and he closed his eyes. But Trinity turned her head to the side.

"I can't, it isn't right," she said, staring at the floor. She was shaking with disgust. Cypher had horrible leverage over her.

Apoc made a choking noise, and Mouse instantly dropped down beside him, taking the opportunity to ignore Trinity's bad luck eagerly. Neo moved slower, kneeling down but never taking his eyes from Trinity.

"We should just kill... the bastard," Apoc managed to whisper. "He won't let us live."

"If Trinity can keep, well, refusing, his time will be up and he'll disappear," Mouse murmured.

"He'll just come back," Neo said quietly. The three of them looked up at Cypher, who was looking at Trinity hungrily.

It was true – it wasn't right. But what was even worse was Trinity's broken pride.

Trinity felt his hand on her shoulder, felt it move quickly to the back of her head. She turned her face to look, and Cypher used it as an advantage and pulled her toward him, pressing her mouth against his. He held her only by the back of her head, but she couldn't struggle away.

It was wrong. She should be kissing Neo, not Cypher. It was Neo she knew now that she loved; Neo that she wanted to be close to. Not Cypher. She couldn't love someone like this.

His kisses were desperate and hungry, passionate and sloppy. It was disgusting. Maybe he found it romantic to be kissing a woman who was trying to pull away and was thinking entirely of someone else, but this wasn't sexy or romantic or anything close. It was about as sexy as a stage kiss.

Cypher kissed her deeper, harder, hotter, but it made no difference except to make her want freedom even more. This man was a murderous traitor. He went to roughly draw her closer by pulling her by her waist, but unfortunately he put his hand exactly over her broken ribs.

With a scream Trinity pulled away as hard as she could. Her ribs burned with pain, and she doubled over, her hands on her injury. Neo was instantly on his feet.

"What the...?" Cypher muttered, taking one step away, then stepping back up to her. He reached out one hand to touch her shoulder. He was very surprised when he discovered that she did have a lot of strength left. She drew back her fist and punched him in the jaw, very, very hard.

He jumped back with a yell and she stumbled back herself. She was worried she might trip, but then someone caught her with welcome hands and steadied her on her feet.

"Are you okay?" Neo asked her quickly. She nodded once. Cypher righted himself.

"What was that?!" he demanded. He stormed up to her, but Neo pulled her back with him.

"She's got broken ribs, you ass," he snapped.

Trinity found it so sweet that he'd stand up for her like that, even if he didn't love her like she did him.

"The exchange is done," she said, still catching her breath and regaining her composure. She would have liked to pretend to be hurt all day, just so that Neo would hold her lightly, but she really shouldn't.

"Exchange?" Cypher demanded.

"Apoc for a kiss. He lives," Trinity said, making a point of wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Mouse looked up from doing something with his phone. Apoc didn't look healthy. His eyes were closed, blood was dripping out of his mouth and his chest was heaving.

"Whatever. Get over here if you want your precious hero to live," said Cypher. Very hesitantly, she left Neo's side and moved over to her enemy, although she wouldn't come within a metre of him now. He handed her a gun. "Kill any one of my little hostages and the rest of you go free."

"What? That was never a part of the deal!" she said angrily. "The deal was that for everything I do for you, you let one of them live."

"Yes, but now one of the 'things' is for you to choose one to die. Funny, init?" Cypher smirked. He knew what power he had over her. "Go on, take your pick." He turned her around. "Should we kill old Apoc, put him out of his misery?" He went to move her arm to point the weapon at Mouse, but she jerked away. "Maybe Mouse? He's just a kid, no real loss there. Plenty more where he came from." Cypher took her wrist and pointed the gun directly at Neo. She had never known anyone who actually enjoyed submitting young women to psychological torture. "Or Neo, perhaps? Should we kill your beloved Neo? Go on, entertain me. Let's see if you can do it. Can you? Can you look into his eyes and pull the trigger? You've always pretended to be so ruthless, so cold." He dropped his voice to a murmur and leaned close to her ear. She never removed her gaze from Neo's unwavering eyes. "Were it anyone else, you could do it. You could look them in the face and say, quite easily, goodbye, before killing them. But not now. You like this guy, you can't do it. You're weak."

"I'm bloody furious, but I am not _weak_," Trinity muttered.

"You have to kill one, might as well be him," Cypher said softly in her ear.

"No."

"Do it!" he said angrily.

"I'd rather kill myself."

"There're two bullets in the gun. One each. Help yourself. You might as well, Trin. I'll just kill him myself otherwise. You know I will."

Yes, he would. But Cypher would kill him slowly and painfully. One well-placed bullet could make sure all of that pain was avoided. Neo wouldn't suffer...

But she couldn't do it.

"I can't! If you were capable of falling in love you'd understand," Trinity said miserably. All four men went silent. Neo stared at her in shock, but then realisation dawned and he seemed to understand something. She had no idea what it was that he was realising, but he looked happier, so she left it be. She'd known her feelings for so little time and already they were out in the open.

"Love? Ha!" Cypher laughed. "What would you know about love, Trinity? I was in love with you for years, and you never gave it a thought. You never stop to think about how your refusals and nasty rebukes hurt everyone else. You're too cold and practical to fall for someone. You can't love."

"Right, so explain this," Trinity snapped furiously, turning on her heel, tossing the gun in the air and marching up to Neo. Cypher caught the gun and watched. She took Neo's cheek in her hand and leaned in immediately. She meant to kiss him beside his mouth, but somehow she found her lips meet his in a deep but quick kiss. Neo was obviously surprised, but instead of leaving his mouth slack, he kissed her back lightly for the two seconds before she broke away and faced Cypher defiantly.

"Stupid bitch," Cypher hissed. "Bleed in hell!"

Neo, still recovering from the shock kiss, watched in worse shock as Cypher held the gun up and fired the two shots in Trinity's general direction before he disappeared. Seven minutes was up. The first bullet just missed her head but the second went straight into her shoulder, just under her collarbone. She fell back into Neo's arms with a quiet moan of pain.

"Is she alright?" Mouse asked, frightened. He was still sitting beside Apoc, with his phone in his lap.

Trinity's hand was covering the wound, so Neo couldn't see the extent of the damage, but the blood was seeping between her fingers and down her black-clad arm. Her hand wasn't enough pressure to stem the bleeding. Neo used one hand to attempt to pry her fingers away from the gunshot wound.

"Trinity, show me, please, I need to know how bad it is," he said.

"It isn't bad," she insisted, her eyes squeezed shut. Having a thought, Neo checked behind her wound, on the back of her shoulder. The bullet had gone right through, and was lying a few metres away on the white floor. The blood from the hole in Trinity's shoulder was running worse from the back, and Neo clamped his hand over it. Instantly the warm, sticky liquid covered his hand. He knew that it probably wasn't exactly life threatening right now, (thankfully it was on the opposite side to her heart) but he had no idea how long they would be trapped in the Construct without medical attention and bandages. She would die of blood loss eventually.

"Where's the shot?" Mouse couldn't see properly.

"Shoulder. Not too bad, but bleeding heaps," Neo answered. With his free hand he firmly pushed Trinity to the floor, then pressed it against hers to help stop the flow of blood. "How about Apoc?"

"Not good. His breathing's really irregular. We have to get him out soon, or he'll die."

"How will getting him out help?"

"The injuries have only happened to his RSI – that's the Residual Self Image, as I guess you know," Mouse explained. He was actually more knowledgeable than he seemed. "So when he gets out into the real world, he's fine, but he'll feel like crap and he'll have a whopper of a headache."

"Oh." Neo felt Trinity's hand move, and he looked down at her to see her removing her hand from the wound.

"Don't bother," she murmured. "Cypher's going to kill us all in a second anyway. Like he killed all the others." She looked up at Neo sadly, her pain mainly evident in her eyes. "I didn't say that Cypher killed Tank and Dozer, too, did I? He killed them and then pulled the plug on Switch."

"I figured he must have done something to them, because you were taking heaps of shit from him," Mouse said, checking Apoc. "If he wasn't our only chance of escaping you would have killed him."

"I wish I had," Trinity muttered. "_Stop it_, Neo. You're wasting your time." She jerked her shoulder away, but Neo grabbed her blooded hand with his own and held it to her bullet wound.

"If Cypher was going to kill us, he would have done it by now," he answered firmly. "We don't how long we'll be here, so if you don't mind?"

Mouse jumped as his phone rang. He stared at it as if he didn't know what it was, then answered it.

"Hello?" he asked shakily. He was silent as he listened for almost a minute. Then he frowned in anger and burst out with, "You arsehole! He's our captain! Why are you doing this?"

"It's Cypher," Neo said in realisation. Trinity nodded.

"Yeah, well, good riddance. You won't be missed," Mouse said angrily into the phone's mouthpiece. "I hope they double-cross you... I'd rather be stuck here until I die than see your ugly face again, you shit... Are you kidding? She doesn't want to talk to you."

"Give me the phone instead," Neo said. Mouse threw the phone to him. "Cypher?"

"Tell Mouse he's getting blind if he can't tell the difference between you and Trinity."

"What is this about Morpheus? Why are you doing this to us?" Neo demanded.

"Because he's a selfish shit." Trinity tried to move her fingers of her injured arm but she wasn't very successful.

"Because the machines are gonna reinsert me into the Matrix and all I had to do was give them Morpheus and kill you suckers. But I have a better idea. I'm going to leave you all in there until you starve. Apoc won't last fifteen minutes and that little bitch in your arms will bleed to death eventually," Cypher told him. "Or at least, I'm hoping so."

"And you asked why she never loved you back," Neo said angrily. He readjusted the position of his hand on Trinity's collarbone.

"What's he saying about me?" Trinity asked angrily. Neo didn't answer.

"Hey, I'd love to spend all day chatting, but that sounds like my ride has arrived outside," Cypher said cheerily. "Don't worry, the sentinels won't kill you. They can't destroy the ship – they need Morpheus alive. Enjoy the time you've got. Jesus, I actually pity you, Neo. You're stuck with Trinity until you die."

With a laugh, Cypher hung up.

"What an ass," Neo growled, throwing the phone back to Mouse. The boy didn't seem to care that it was covered in Trinity's blood. After all, it didn't really exist.

"What's happening?" Trinity demanded. Apparently bullets going through her shoulder weren't enough to change her personality.

"Cypher gave Morpheus to the agents," Mouse said in a downcast voice. "I have no idea why they'd want him alive, but apparently they do."

"They want the codes to Zion," Trinity answered, matter-of-fact. "Every captain is given them."

"Oh, of course." Mouse nodded. "Yeah, and Cypher's going to leave us here to starve while the sentinels take him away on a little sled thing, from what I figured. That's instead of killing us himself."

"He'd almost be gone by now," Neo pointed out unhappily. "I guess we'd better settle in, then?"

"Not quite," the boy answered with a slight smile. He held up the phone. "I called our Core's computer and sent a distress signal out. Any ships within a certain radius should immediately come to our aid."

"How long will it take for someone to arrive?"

"Depends," Trinity said. "The other ships could be miles away. Or there could simply be no one within the radius."

"I meant, will anyone get here in time for _him_," Neo said, nodding meaningly at Apoc. She gave him a silent look that said it all.

"Get comfy, they might be a while," Mouse said a few minutes of staring at Apoc later. He gave the dying man an awkward pat on the shoulder, then stood and approached Neo and Trinity. "How is it?" he asked, pointing at her wound.

"Just peachy," she answered sarcastically. She glanced at her jacket pocket as her phone rang. "Damn you, Cypher, I'm not interested," she muttered, answering it. Her face brightened instantly. "Captain Niobe, thank God... Yes, we did... No, no, we have much worse problems than those sentinels outside... Couldn't get a hold of Tank or Morpheus? That's because Tank's dead and Morpheus is being held by agents – I think." She paused and listened. "Be careful, but please hurry. We have one wounded crewmember, critical..."

She didn't mention her own pierced shoulder.

"I can't explain over the phone, but we're all stuck in the Construct with no way out. Everyone else is dead... Yes, thanks."

She hung up and turned to Neo and Mouse.

"Well?" Mouse asked, nervous but excited.

"The _Logos_ is waiting not far off, but they've turned nearly everything off because there's a small crowd of sentinels just outside our ship," Trinity explained, trying but failing to flex her shoulder. She stopped with a wince and moved her red fingers. "Once the sentinels leave, they're going to come aboard and help us out. They got our signal immediately and they've been trying to contact us but obviously no one's home, so they called me. And they should be in here in about five to ten minutes."

"Apoc?"

"Will be fine if they get here in time," she said, watching her fingers as she moved them weakly.

"Who is Captain Naomi?" Neo asked, taking his hands away from her to wipe the blood on his leg. He quickly replaced his hand, keeping tight pressure. No one knew how to help Apoc, with his crushed insides.

"Niobe," Trinity corrected. "She's an old... friend of Morpheus. And me, I guess. She's a hell of a driver."

Apoc made a severe choking noise, and she winced again, but on his behalf.

"What happened to him?" Neo asked in a very low voice, leaning past Trinity to address Mouse.

"Agents. Punched him up pretty bad," the boy answered. "He tried to protect Morpheus."

For six minutes, they waited quietly, barely saying anything at all now that all questions had been answered. Then Trinity seemed to think of something.

"Neo, about before," she said uncertainly.

"Before? When?" he asked, confused. He checked the bleeding.

"What I said... before, about you to Cypher. And what I did."

The kiss.

"Oh, that. Forget it, it's fine. I understand," Neo assured her.

"You do?" she said, brightening.

"Yeah, of course. I stand by what I said earlier."

It was her turn to be confused. "What did you say earlier?"

Neo thought it was sweet that she had chosen him for her 'I-love-someone-else' skit.

"I said you would have made a good actor," he reminded her. She stared at him, as though she wondered what that had to do with anything, but then her eyes dulled and she looked disappointed.

"Yeah. Right, I remember," she said, turning her head away from him. What had he said wrong?

Then Apoc disappeared.

"Hey!" Mouse said, sitting up before disappearing himself. Blinking, Neo stared at Trinity beside him, but then he opened his eyes in the _Nebuchadnezzar_, in the real world. An attractive woman with coffee-coloured skin and curly dark brown hair was standing beside him now, hanging the head-needle up. He sat up and looked around. Apoc was smiling weakly and leaning against his chair, his hand on his forehead. Mouse was shaking hands with a young Zion-born man who had just taken his head plug out. An oriental man from the Matrix was still removing Trinity's head-jack from her skull. Neo watched her until her cool blue eyes fluttered open and her breathing deepened, then turned back to the woman.

"Captain Niobe," she said before he could speak. She extended a hand, and Neo accepted it.

"I'm Neo," he said, sitting up and glancing at the others in the Core. Switch was lying dead and still in her chair, and right beside Neo's own chair lay Dozer, having been beaten to death by some hard object.

"Dozer?" Trinity asked, ignoring the Asian man's offered hand and sitting up unassisted. Her shoulder was fine here. She walked up to the body and stared down at it. Silent.

"Trinity, I know I'm not your captain, but you need to order your crew to take a rest," Niobe said firmly. Trinity looked up after a few seconds.

"Apoc, Mouse, Neo, go take a rest," she commanded. "I'm going to get Morpheus back."

There was a lot of negative response to this.

"No, you've had a difficult day, and you need your rest," Niobe ordered.

"I'm not tired!" Mouse said in annoyance.

"It's too dangerous, you have no idea where he is or anything," said the Zion-born guy (an operator, no doubt, although a very worrying one).

"If you're going in after Morpheus, I'm coming with you!" Apoc said angrily. Trinity ignored all the others and spun around to him.

"There is no way I'd even consider letting you come along in your condition," she said briskly. She turned back to her crowd of unhappy people. "Listen, I know we can do this. All of us, working together as a team – it can work. Sparks, help yourself to the operator's station. Niobe, Ghost – I could really use your help. I won't be able to do this alone."

"But you won't be alone," Apoc interrupted. "You'll have us."

"No. You're not in shape and Neo and Mouse aren't experienced enough."

"It could work if we had all of us, including them," Niobe said doubtfully. "I don't think two or three people would be able to infiltrate something guarded by the agents." She glanced over at the unconscious, sweating Morpheus, whose eyelids were flittering with mental strain. "No, it wouldn't work. There simply isn't enough manpower."

The Zion-man, Sparks, glanced over at the operator's computers, maybe noticing something the others didn't. He hurried over and jammed the headset on while they all watched in surprise.

"Yes, this is the _Nebuchadnezzar_, and yes, they did send out a distress signal a while back," he said after a few seconds. He looked over at the crowd of onlookers and looked around. "Four alive and well, three dead, one still plugged in and one gone off somewhere." He glanced back at Trinity. "Yeah, she's alive, kid... Well, the _Logos_ is here in assistance, but one second." Sparks spun around on the swivel chair and glanced between Niobe and Trinity.

"What is it?" they asked in unison. They had the same stubborn, commanding tone, Neo noticed.

"There's a girl here claiming to be from the _Nadir_," he said. "They're offering their assistance. Do we want their help?"


	4. Ambush

TITLE: Deja Vu

RATING: PG-13

AUTHOR: Sólia

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? The _Logos_ and the _Nadir_ have answered the _Nebuchadnezzar_'s distress call, and now Trinity has her own crew of three, and also the crews of the two rescuing ships to help save Morpheus. Now it's time for an alternative-universe lobby scene.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yeah! Chase and Ari, but particularly Chase, kick arse! I had to stick them in somewhere. I'm starting to wish this is how the movie went – Delerith and I would have been movie stars! Except we were so not seventeen-year-olds in 1999.

Thanks so, so much to everyone who has waited patiently for this chapter. I apologise to anyone who was offended by my lack of updating. I know it's been ages. I recommend maybe rereading the previous chapter since it's been so long. Sorry again for the wait.

And thanks to my reviewers, including Jadza (Ich liebe dich!), Kris, Lila and Mystic Kyra, who reviewed most recently (some were last year, lol).

Chapter four – Ambush

Neo had only met rebels from his own ship before today. Now he knew the crew of the _Logos_ and the _Nadir_, and it was the same day that he had been to the Oracle, Morpheus had been captured, and Switch, Tank and Dozer had been murdered by Cypher. Busy day.

He was dressed completely in black, like usual in the Matrix, except it looked cooler, and more intimidating. He was going to enter the building Morpheus was being kept in with Trinity, Apoc, Mouse, Niobe, Ghost, and the _Nadir_ crew – Captain Glyph, Specter, Citadel, Coyote, and two seventeen-year-old girls who were once freed from the Matrix by Morpheus; Chase and Ari.

Niobe and Trinity had organised a plan with Glyph. Most of them were going to use the front doors. Citadel and Ghost were to use the staff access out the back. Specter would be waiting with a mini-van out the front as a getaway car. Trinity and one other would use the elevator and set off the bomb. Six others would use the two sets of stairs. One would stay to keep guard on the first level.

"Let's go," Niobe said, straightening her glasses. Inside the Matrix, her curly hair was braided and then twisted into small geometric buns all over her head. It looked cool. She wore weird triangular glasses and a sort of crimson-red leather trench coat.

Those two young girls, younger even than Mouse, glanced at her expressionlessly and instantly started after her. They were the kind of people Neo was jealous of – they were new to this, but somehow they acted like they were born to it.

Trinity and Apoc showed no sign of their earlier injuries whatsoever. They looked just as fresh as anyone else. In the real world, though, Apoc looked tired and achy.

The building was tall and appeared to be completely glass. They entered the front doors in single file. The receptionist didn't look happy to see them.

"No entrance without an appointment," he said snootily. Glyph, the man with a light blonde ponytail, punched him in the nose when he refused them entry again.

"We have an appointment," he said as he followed the others. Neo glanced back as he walked through the turning door behind Mouse. The poor unconscious receptionist lay on the modern tiles of the reception.

Trinity, Niobe and Glyph were leading everyone else. Glyph held a large black duffel bag in his hand, and now he dropped it onto the x-ray conveyor belt machine. The guards didn't seem worried until Niobe walked through the human metal detector, setting off the small, single-beeped alarm.

"Ma'am, please identify any metal you're carrying, like keys or maybe a belt buckle?" one of the security guards said, standing up and approaching her. Neo saw the men get uneasy when they saw Glyph and Trinity also step through to set off the beep, also dressed to intimidate.

A young man from the _Nadir_ called Coyote waltzed on through without much interest ahead of Mouse, but when he heard the guard repeat his question to Niobe, he grinned.

"You mean like guns?" he asked, more to stir trouble than anything else. At these words Niobe, Trinity and Apoc took out their guns and shot the guards before they could defend themselves. Two men ducked and pulled out their radios.

"An ambush! Terrorists in the lobby!" one cried.

"Send security! Back up! Quick!" the other said loudly, pulling a gun free and holding it up. Neo thought it was almost amusing that they seriously thought they could defend themselves with one pistol here.

Apoc silenced them quickly. "Hurry," he said, grabbing the duffel bag containing Trinity's bomb. Neo followed at the pace of the girls, Ari and Chase, wondering how long the back up security took to arrive.

He missed hearing the sound because one of the girls whispered something to the other. He turned to look. They were very mature and grown-up for seventeen-year-olds, but they could still drop back into the normal teenager routine of whispering secrets.

"I was just saying that I recognised you," one of them, Ari, said with a quick smile. Her friend, Chase, leaned around her with an equally bright smile.

"We literally ran into you on one of our first expeditions into the Matrix," she said quietly. "Sorry about pushing you into the fence and all."

Neo was vaguely recalling an event six months ago when he had been walking to his favourite noodles restaurant and two teenage girls had run straight into him, before yelling, 'get out of the way!' and shoving him into a wire fence. He was so caught up in the memory that he walked into Trinity. She was staring ahead with rapt attention. The security had arrived, and the rebels were almost halfway across the lobby.

"Hold it right there!" one of the 'hiding' armed and armoured guards shouted. The group of nine rebels did nothing but stare as the security guards continued to surround them.

"Now!" Niobe yelled, bolting for one of the tall, square pillars that served the double purpose of support for the roof and decoration. She pulled out her gun again and opened fire on the captain of the guards. All of the others in the group ran for it, too, drawing their own firearms and shooting.

Neo ran behind a pillar and glanced back to where they had all been seconds ago. The bomb was still there, and bullets flew through the air, many bullet paths crossing. He leaned around the support to fire on one of the enemy men. There were people running everywhere.

Upon seeing one guard sneaking up behind Mouse and Trinity, both intent on killing a small group of enemy a few metres ahead of them, Neo brought his gun up and held down the trigger. The man jerked a few times as the bullets hit, then fell to the marble tiled floor. Mouse glanced back, then grinned across at Neo.

"Neo, down!" Niobe yelled. He obeyed, hearing a guard slam his rifle into the pillar where his head had just been. But the guard was in for a surprise, because when Neo kicked him in the knee, most certainly breaking it, Niobe also shot at him, killing him just as certainly.

This was a dangerous job, but fun, because the rebels were already winning. In fact, there almost seemed to be too many good guys – they were lucky to not get caught in their own cross fire.

As Trinity knocked one guard's head into a support pillar, she debated what this might have turned out like if only she and, say, Neo, were to have undertaken it. There seemed too many rebels in the room. It was a definite advantage, but still, it didn't feel right, and she, who had taken part in so many emergency rescues, knew how this should feel. There was sure to be casualties. Someone would get caught in the fire, because that was just what happened in her experience. Things only worked if dealt with in their bare essentials. They didn't need nine people in this room. A few would have done fine. Maybe even just two… She and Neo would have done fine… maybe?

Mouse helped her kill another guard by taking his rifle while she punched him in the face, and then the boy shot the guard in the back of the head. He hurried over to the next guard like an over-eager child.

She shouldn't have let him along. He was by far less ready for this than even the girls, than Neo.

Someone with flying fists and swift kicks backed past her, being driven back by a hand-to-hand-combat knowledgeable guard. It was Chase, noticeable by her signature dark chocolate brown, shoulder-length high ponytail. With a single shot, Trinity had killed her attacker and caused him to hit the ground facedown. Smiling beautifully, Chase ducked beside her old friend. Dust flying, chips of concrete and marble flicking through the air, even super-fast bullets barely missing her couldn't erase Chase's smile when Trinity snatched up the guard's gun from the floor and tossed it onto her lap before leaning perilously around the pillar.

"Aim for the guard over there, he's firing at Neo," she said, shooting vaguely in the general direction of the said guard. She had a bit of trouble – she was right-handed, and was on the right side of the pillar, so she had to lean further so that her shoulder could control her arm's movement. Deciding that this left too much of her arm available for shooting, she dropped down further, so she was sitting, and changed the gun into her left hand. That made things easier, and she was able to get a clearer shot at Neo's attacker. It was Chase that ended up killing him, though.

They both ducked behind the pillar again as some enemy men decided that they were obvious, dangerous targets and decided to shoot at them. Chase took the moment to speak, thus explaining her smile.

"A friend of yours?" she asked innocently. She had that annoying, enviable ability to sound perfectly innocent while lying or being sarcastic, even if that meant telling someone something completely outrageous or ridiculous.

"Neo?" Trinity asked, carefully checking for new attackers behind her pillar to avoid making eye contact with the intelligent girl. Ari, her best friend, was the rebellious one that could get anything she wanted from someone through force – and she was strong and aggressive enough to get it otherwise. But Chase was the one who could play the mind games (she seemed to be able to read minds, or get inside them or something) and convince with cute, innocent looks.

"I think that's his name. Ari and I pushed him into a fence once on our Jai/Stark trip. Ages ago."

Trinity didn't answer, aiming instead at a hidden security guard that had targeted Coyote, a redhead crewmate of Chase's, and holding down the trigger until she had killed him.

"He's pretty cute," Chase said, still as innocent as ever. Innocent _sounding_, anyway. "I can't believe we ran straight into another rebel and shoved him into a wire fence. That was, like, six months ago, though. He wasn't a part of your crew then. Where did he transfer-" She stopped suddenly and ducked her face as a bullet struck the concrete above her and sent cement dust scattering over them, "-from?"

"Nowhere," Trinity said as she killed the culprit of the pillar-destruction. "We only just got him out of the Matrix a month ago."

"Seriously? At his age?" Chase was amazed. "I thought you couldn't…" She peered around the edge of the pillar, innocent, cute voice gone. "Trinny, he's older than you," she noted.

Eyebrows raised slightly at both the nickname she hadn't heard from the girls in too long and Chase's prejudicing comment, Trinity turned to her younger friend.

"I know that," she said indignantly, straightening and kneeling to get a better view of the goings-on of everyone else. She managed to shoot at least three more back up guards before she realised that Chase wasn't speaking and glanced at her with a tiny spark of worry. She was alive, but staring at her gun thoughtfully. She looked up.

"Why did Morpheus get him out?" she asked.

"Morpheus thinks he's… he thinks he might be the One," Trinity said finally. Chase's dark eyes brightened, and she stood. She held the gun lightly and smiled.

"I have to tell Ari," she said immediately. She looked around the corner at the shootout. "By the way, you two would suit." She backed up a little as Trinity realised what she had meant – Neo and her – then dashed forward.

"No, Cha-" she began, but the girl leaped into numerous cartwheels to avoid the bullets and to also reach the other side of the lobby safely. She got to Ari completely unharmed. But she was only with her for about five seconds before she ran to the assistance of her captain, Glyph. When Ari met her gaze momentarily, Trinity wondered what Chase had told her. She couldn't have said much, but she had probably communicated the rest of the story in her own special way, with her mind-talk.

Trinity got up and left her hiding place, preferring to be out in the open anyway if it came to it. What was happening to Morpheus right then? Did he know that she had argued with the over-worrying operator of the _Logos_, Sparks, and everyone else, so that she wouldn't have to pull his plug?

Everyone had strongly suggested she decide to kill her captain by pulling the plug for the good of Zion and the Resistance – Sparks, Niobe, Ghost (who was usually so placid and gentle), Citadel, Specter, _Nadir_'s operator Lunar, even Apoc had been for it. Glyph had believed that with enough manpower her idea had been perfectly possible. The girls and Mouse and Coyote were open to anything new and adventurous and for them the line between easy and fully impossible was a very thin one. Neo had insisted that the Oracle had foretold him of this and he knew he had to try. So with that little extra prompt from him and with her position of power, Trinity had decided that Morpheus would just have to hold up. The rescue went ahead.

Two guards down instantly with one bullet each, another shot back but missed when attacked from behind by Apoc. She was on a roll. One guard self-sacrificially ran at her, and she tossed her gun aside to block his heavy but clumsy blows. Within seconds she had knocked the wind out of him with a knee to his stomach, and held him still as someone else shot at her, using his large bulk as a human shield.

There were only two men left in the lobby.

Neo lowered his gun from what he figured was about the third-to-last enemy guy, and watched Trinity for a moment. She was unarmed now, fighting off another guard. This one was skinny and tall, much taller even than her, but she was fine – she was slight, supple and smart, and she used all of her qualities to her greatest advantage.

She caught a hard punch long before it got close enough to be threatening toward her, and twisted her enemy's arm at the elbow. She spun beneath it and came up behind him before he got a chance to stop her. She snapped his arm back, hard, breaking his elbow and causing him much pain while one of the girls, Ari, slid a gun across the floor to Niobe, who caught it and stood, shooting the man repeatedly in the chest.

But there was one more that no one saw until almost too late. Glyph had already retrieved the duffel bag when Ari straightened with a smile. Neo spotted the almost hidden guard in the corner not far behind the young girl, just lowering his radio and raising his rifle.

"Move!" he shouted to the girl. Ari instinctively moved a few steps to side, and bullets flew harmlessly past her. Neo held up his own Mac11 and fired non-stop at the guard, but he only hit the man's shoulder. He and Coyote jogged over and finished the guy off.

"Thanks," Ari said, brushing her free fringe from her eyes but not tucking it behind her ears. Her hair was black with thin lavender streaks leading to her high and stylish bun. The streaks matched her eyes.

Neo didn't even nod. He wanted to remain as businesslike as Trinity, whom he greatly admired.

"Someone has to stay," Niobe said as Glyph handed the bag to Trinity. The younger woman nodded once at Apoc.

"You can stay guard here," she said in a voice that practically dripped the words, 'where you'll be safer'. She wasn't happy about bringing him along because of his earlier almost fatal injuries.

"Fine," Apoc answered without his usual respect. She didn't seem to care.

"Groups of three up the stairs," Glyph said. Chase and Ari immediately followed Captain Niobe when she took the left passage leading from the room to fire stairs. Neo decided to leave Mouse with Trinity and jogged after Glyph and Coyote, but she grabbed his upper arm.

"You come with me," Trinity said, pulling him back and giving Mouse a light shove after Coyote. The boy looked slightly offended. "Go on," she added to him, and he sulked off.

"Why me?" Neo asked, entering the elevator before her.

"I don't know. You're taller? Anything you like."

She seemed to consider this a valid, perfectly normal answer.

Trinity typed in the number for the roof level and, as the elevator started moving, she knelt down beside the bag and opened it, revealing the silver case inside. She opened that, too, with practiced speed that showed her previous experience. She could have done this by herself.

"Why did you need a 'helper'?" Neo asked her finally as she started to press in the codes. She pulled her jacket off and looked up at him.

"I don't," she said.

"Then why am I here and not sweating my ass off trying to beat you to the top on the stairs?"

"To ask stupid questions," she answered, going back to her task. "No, because this isn't the only thing we're doing. No one else down there, except maybe Niobe or Glyph, has fighting capabilities like yours. I planned for you to be with me the whole time."

"Oh, okay," Neo said, leaving it be. On level fifty, the lift stopped.

"Shit," Trinity muttered, infuriated and terrified all at once. Neo turned to the door and, for some reason, wished with all of his being that the doors would somehow stick. How stupid to wish like that – nothing happened unless you made it – but amazingly, the doors wouldn't open. He could hear people banging on the doors. He must have had his eyes closed tightly, because Trinity shook him by the shoulder and demanded if he was okay and if he was the one making the doors stay closed.

"I'm fine," he said, opening his eyes. He didn't know what he had done, but the idea that the elevator door didn't really exist helped him a bit. Maybe he had just concentrated on the code or something in his head? But then, who cared? He had to get himself and Trinity out of there. He spotted the escape hatch on the roof. He pushed it aside. "Hurry."

Trinity finished with the bomb and stood. Neo gave her a foot up, and she climbed through the hole. Practically praying to the God that he'd long lost confidence in to keep those doors closed long enough, Neo pulled himself up after her. She was fiddling with a panel on the steel wall, pulling colourful wires out and checking them. Neo got to his feet and moved over to her.

"Got it!" she said, ripping a green one free. The doors slid open. She pushed Neo out into the hall and quickly followed, drawing a gun and aiming at the brackets where the elevator was attached to the thick wires that held it suspended and allowed it to move up and down.

"Wait!" Neo said, catching her wrist before she could shoot. "Why can't we attach ourselves to the cords? We'd get to the top a hell of a lot faster."

"You're right," Trinity said, stepping back onto the top of the elevator. She found one brace lying on the top. She attached it to Neo's belt with the short rope that was tied to it. As though forgetting about herself completely, she locked it onto the rope and stood back.

"That's me, but what about you?" Neo asked. She shrugged.

"I could run up the stairs," she answered. She got her gun again and shot one of the two cords. Neo held his one tightly. Trinity stepped closer. "Or I could stay with you."

"That one sounds good," he said, sliding one arm around her waist and pulling her closer. She glanced down at his arm and then studied his face as though searching for a hidden meaning behind his action. She couldn't find one. She wrapped her own arm around his shoulders and took the rope in her hand.

"Ready?" she asked. Neo hesitated.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea," he said, taking the gun she pressed into his hand before replacing her arm around his shoulders. "We could crash into the roof, or you could fall."

"I'm not going to fall."

"How do you know?"

"Because you aren't going to drop me," Trinity answered. The people on the next floor down still couldn't get into the doomed elevator.

"What if I do? We'd all be screwed – this would all go to hell," said Neo.

"You aren't going to drop me. We're going to be fine," she said. She moved a little closer, and Neo tightened his grip on her. "I have faith in you," she murmured.

"But I'm not the One," he said softly. Nonetheless he shot the last coupling and allowed the virtual rules of gravity and physics to pull him and Trinity upwards immediately. The elevator fell, pulling their cord behind it, but they were still going up.

"Apoc's on the bottom level!" Trinity said suddenly, but Neo barely heard her – the bomb went off at about level twenty. The doors of level fifty opened, and the human guards peered into the empty shaft before they jumped back from the blast of heat that rushed up to meet them. Trinity hid her face for a moment, and Neo held her a little bit closer. Nearly at the top…


	5. Sacrifice

TITLE: Deja vu

RATING: PG-13

AUTHOR: Sólia

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? The three crews have ganged together to rescue Morpheus and have broken into the building where he's being held. Now they're rushing upstairs to reach him before it's too late. Neo and Trinity are inside the elevator shaft and the bomb had just gone off. But they're all running into a trap. Who will survive?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to Kris, Mystic Kyra and Brooke for your encouraging reviews, it's really great to get your positive feedback. I'm glad you like it. I should start uploading quickly now that I'm on holidays.

Chapter five – Sacrifice

Niobe grabbed the railing and ran up the next flight. Those two girls, Chase and Ari, weren't far behind, and for such young recruits they were doing very well. They weren't showing any signs of tiring yet.

Somewhere, an explosion went off, only a flight or two above them. Trinity's bomb. The stairs shook a little. Chase, the one with the dark chocolate hair, stumbled into Ari, but they quickly got their footing and continued up the stairs at top speed. Morpheus' life might depend on their timing.

-

The explosion was about twenty or more storeys above, but of course Apoc, in the lobby, heard it. Trinity's bomb had gone off in the elevator shaft. But the lift would hit the ground level in a few seconds. He bolted away from the elevator doors and ducked behind one of the half-destroyed pillars just in time.

The worst of the explosion had occurred a few storeys up, but still, the door was blown off and fire blew from the opening. Luckily Apoc didn't get hurt – but he couldn't help wondering where the others were now.

-

Now out of the elevator shaft, Neo forced Trinity behind him so that he could successfully kill all of the quietly conversing guards around the corner. They never saw or heard him coming. Within seconds of holding down the trigger, all six were dead.

"Let's go," she said, walking past him and rounding the corner completely unarmed.

"Where now?" Neo glared up at the fire precautionary sprinklers as they showered him with water.

"Stairs," Trinity answered, starting for them. She tried to force it open, but someone, no doubt one of the guards, had locked it. Annoyed, she took Neo's gun and blasted it.

"Nice work. Now the agents will go broke paying for the locks you break," Neo said.

"Shut it. Keep up."

She ran down the stairs before he could, not even trying to wait for him. So Neo had to bolt to keep up with her.

About a dozen storeys below, Trinity kicked a door open.

-

Too many storeys up to count, Mouse had already followed Glyph out of the stairway and into a hall. Coyote, being cautious, had shut the door behind him.

They came to a cross-section in the halls. Glyph led them down the one that went to the left. When they reached the correct door, Mouse spotted Niobe with those cute young girls running over, too.

"Trinity and Neo aren't here yet," Niobe noticed. Glyph shook his head, sprinkling water everywhere.

"Ready?" he asked, drawing his gun. Three agents were behind this door, and Morpheus, too. Ghost suddenly turned up, gun held up.

"Citadel's downstairs with Apoc," he said quietly, running closer. Niobe nodded. Mouse watched the two girls as they took their own guns out. They were both really hot, especially drenched in water. He wished he'd been formally introduced to them before now. He'd probably die here, and they'd only ever know him as the boy who died trying to save Morpheus.

"Go," Glyph muttered, opening the door. The seven of them piled into the room, aiming their guns for the back of the agents' heads. In a few seconds, two agents were on the floor. Their water-drenched suits disappeared in a flurry of green electricity, instantly replaced by the dead body of the host. It was impossible to know if they'd actually killed the agents, or if Agents Brown and Jones had simply vacated their hosts before dying.

One kept avoiding the shots, dodging impossibly as he (or it) turned to face them and snatched out a gun. Agent Smith squeezed the trigger and fired four times before a bullet from Ari's gun ripped through his throat. One enemy bullet grazed Chase's hand. She gasped but didn't check it. A human body landed on the floor with a splash. Ari seemed amazed with herself, and she whispered to Chase, "I killed an agent!"

Morpheus was sitting desolately in a steel chair; his head hung low, sweat dotting his face and the sprinklers' water running down his cheeks. Wires were strung between his temples and the computers beside him. Obviously the agents were reading his brainwaves and trying to break into his mind.

"Morpheus?" Niobe asked, remaining businesslike but allowing a generous amount of worry to enter her voice. "Are you okay?"

He was breathing, but his eyes were rolled back in his head, revealing only the whites.

"Captain?" Mouse asked, scared again. He had been so scared at so many times today. In the building when he had had to climb out a window to escape being shot, when he had seen Switch drop out of the blue, when Cypher had paid them all that visit in the Construct… That had been scary, especially when he had announced that Trinity had to kill one of them. Mouse had known that if she got around to shooting one of them, and actually did it, the choice would be between him and Apoc. Like she would have killed Neo – she obviously liked him just as much as Cypher had said.

_Or Neo, perhaps? Should we kill your beloved Neo? Go on, entertain me_. Chilling words.

Morpheus was fighting whatever had control over his mind. Niobe pulled the white circles from his head and Ari carefully shot the chain between the captain's wrists. He was almost free.

He forced his eyes proper and blinked a few times.

"Niobe? Mouse?" he asked as he got to his feet.

"Come on," Glyph said, taking one of his fellow captain's arms to help support him until he felt better.

At the door, Mouse collided with Trinity, who had just arrived with Neo. Neo, the clueless guy.

"Thank God, you found him okay," she said, sighing with relief. "How are we going to get downstairs without attracting the agents' attention?"

"A diversion," Glyph answered. "A few of us will take Morpheus, and the others can deliberately get their attention."

"Come with me," Trinity said immediately, grabbing Neo by the arm and starting off.

"Wait, Trinity." Niobe called her back. "Ghost, you go with them. And someone else."

"Me. Us," Ari said, indicating Chase, too, when she gave her a dirty look.

"Too inexperienced," Glyph said with a shake of his head.

"Let us go and we'll be experienced after this," Chase suggested. But they weren't allowed to go.

"Coyote, Mouse, go," Niobe said, nodding at the other three. Mouse followed the red-haired guy Coyote out the door, disappointed. He'd been hoping to be stuck with the girls.

At the end of the hall, Trinity stopped them all and said, "Don't fight to win – fight to annoy. Once the agents pick up on us, they'll turn up. That's when we run. Okay?"

There was a lot of nodding in the small group.

Trinity was the first to strike the guards around the corner. She was good at what she did, and she kept to her words – she only fought to annoy them, getting painful kicks and jabs but never killing them. Neo was next to join, and Mouse and Ghost were quick to follow. Coyote kept a watchout on their escape route.

The three guards in turn morphed into the three agents.

"Go, go!" Trinity shouted, pushing Neo and Ghost back as hard as she could. They both turned and fled after Coyote, Mouse too. Coyote pushed open the stairwell that the others weren't using and ran inside ahead of the others. Mouse didn't want to wait around. He vaulted over the railing onto the next flight down, and did it again, desperate to put as much distance between himself and the enemy.

The others must have taken his example, because they weren't far behind at any time. Trinity was always at the back, ready to push anyone forward if they fell behind, ready to fight to protect them. To make sure she bought Glyph, Niobe and the girls enough time to get Morpheus out.

A small cry alerted the others to the fact that the agents _had_ caught up with Trinity. Mouse glanced over his shoulder and paused for a moment, ready to keep running, but there was no need yet. The three agents – Smith, Brown and Jones – were sidetracked with Trinity. Brown had his arms clamped around her, with her arms pinned down uselessly. Agents' grips were too strong for even Trinity to break free.

"Trinity!" Neo exclaimed.

"We definitely see enough of you," Jones said, drawing back his fist. He punched her, hard, in the jaw. Her head snapped to one side, but she immediately looked back, her blue eyes so proud and defiant. The agent went to hit her again, but Neo chose that moment to kick him solidly in the side. Jones stumbled sideways into Agent Smith. Neo's next kick was to Brown's head. Mouse thought that was risky move. He was lucky he didn't hit Trinity. But the guy must have known what he was doing, because the only thing he hit was Agent Brown's face. The agent's grip on Trinity loosened for a moment, and she struggled free and bolted down the stairs, catching Neo's wrist as she did so.

"Move!" she yelled, spurring the others into motion again. Mouse took off. No way was he going to let himself get caught like that. Unlike Trinity, he didn't have the quick mind that would have gotten him out of the grasp.

-

Morpheus didn't need Glyph's assistance now – he was running down the stairs as fast as he could – although he had of course thanked the other captain for the help.

He had been very touched to hear that his entire living and good-hearted crew had teamed with his friends to help him. Glyph and Niobe, his ex girlfriend from many years ago, had agreed to letting their crews take part in his rescue. The inseparable girls, Chase and Ari, both of whom Morpheus himself had freed from the Matrix on the day they met at their all-girls high school, were here. Apoc and Mouse were here. Ghost, Niobe's only other crewmember that was capable of jacking into the Matrix, was here. Coyote, Citadel and Specter, the rest of Glyph's crew, were here. Neo and Trinity were here, even though by law she shouldn't have left the ship. But her loyalty was entirely commendable and would get her out of any trouble she got into when they got back to Zion.

"This place needs escalators," Chase complained. She kept running and wasn't panting or anything, but of course she was going to get tired eventually.

"Or teleportation machines!" Ari agreed. "It is the Matrix, anything's possible."

"The agents already are teleportation devices," Niobe said grimly. "Besides, we're nearly at the bottom."

-

The two doors opened at once. Apoc and Citadel were surrounded by the sudden mass of guards.

"Freeze! Put your hands on the ground!" one of the armoured guards demanded, holding his rifle to his eye, ready to fire.

-

Trinity could still hear the agents behind her. Neo was right beside her, and the other three before her, so she was able to see them all. She heard the electricity noise as one of the agents left its host.

"Shit," she muttered angrily. She hadn't been able to keep all three of them there in the stairwell. The other one – she didn't dare to turn to see which one – might have gone to wherever Morpheus and the others were.

That was not good.

"What? How did I…? What the hell?" The voice of the ex host carried down the stairs even as they kept running and creating echoes. The poor guy didn't know how he got there. He just had a little headache. Maybe a big one, actually. But she didn't care.

She had to outrun two agents.

-

The agent called Smith walked into the semi-destroyed lobby.

"Mr Mackenzie, fancy meeting you here," he said to Citadel. Apoc didn't give him the chance to say anything else. He whipped out his gun and opened fire on the guards.

Unfortunately, the guards were just as ready, and fired back.

"No! Apoc, don't!" Citadel shouted, but it was too late. Apoc was hit. Citadel was alone, and bullets were still firing. He ducked, and narrowly missed being killed.

Apoc was only just alive when the bullets stopped.

Agent Smith smiled his coldest.

"Kill them," he ordered the security guards. Citadel closed his eyes, thinking of his daughter and her mother, Lunar.

-

In the confines of the _Nadir_, Lunar stared at the screen in horror.

"No!" she screamed. "No, not you!"

No one was around to hear her. Nearby, in his chair, Citadel's body started jerking as bullet after bullet hit him in the chest.

-

Niobe reached for the door handle of the ground floor exit to the fire escape stairs, but Glyph's phone suddenly rang. He answered it, and Niobe stopped for a moment. She heard Glyph's operator's tearful voice from where she stood.

"What? Lunar, what happened? Who died?" Glyph asked. He opened the door himself and strode out into the hall behind the lobby. Niobe followed beside Morpheus. Chase and Ari were paying careful attention to their captain. Something was really wrong. Chase said as much. Glyph ignored her.

"Citadel. Yes, I got that much. Where? Where did he die, Lunar? Is he-" Glyph froze. Three or four dozen rifles were aimed at him and his small party. On the floor behind the guards, surrounded in their own blood, lay Citadel and Apoc. Dead, both of them.

He was furious to see his crewmember dead. He went for his gun.

"No, Captain!" Ari called loudly. She and Chase were behind Morpheus and Niobe, and they grabbed one each and pulled them back to safety. But when Ari reached for Glyph, she missed.

It was too late anyway. He opened fire on the guards, determined to bring them down. Niobe turned her head away when the enemies fired back repeatedly.

"God," Ari whispered, her eyes huge, as her captain fell to the rubbly floor of the lobby, bullets in his head and body. Chase's fingernails were digging into Niobe's wrist, where she had grabbed her before.

"Come out if you want to live!" one of the security guards yelled. "Unarmed, hands behind your head. Now!"

Niobe glanced at the other three. There was no other course of action that would get them out alive.

"We're… We're coming out!" she shouted. Very slowly, she pulled her hand free of Chase's and placed them behind her head. One by one, the others followed suit.

Morpheus led them out into firing range, but of course, since they were surrendering, they weren't shot. Some of the guards walked up and roughly pulled them into a line in the middle of the broken lobby.

"A nice little get-together, don't you think?" Agent Smith asked casually.

A door smashed open nearby. Out of the other hall, the final rebels came running in. Thus joining the nice little get-together.

Mouse came into view first, calling something back to someone. He turned back to the front, spotted the issue at hand, and halted. Coyote was next, and he ran right into him before he realised that something was wrong. Ghost and Neo crashed into them, but Trinity rounded the corner at breakneck speed and somehow managed to stop herself before she collided with Ghost.

"Damn," Coyote said in a 'whoops, we stuffed up' voice. Trinity muttered something angrily that Niobe didn't pick up. The other two agents walked out behind them.

"Thank you for joining us," Smith said, indicating for them to join the others. Some guards strode up and grabbed their arms, dragging them over to the line. There were quite a few men who decided that Trinity, the most delicate-looking of the lot, needed the most attention.

-

Neo gave the guard to his left an evil look but didn't bother trying to shake him off. There were too many others around. He was roughly shoved into line beside Morpheus.

"I am grateful for the thought and effort put into my rescue, but this isn't what I had in mind," the captain said with a grim smile.

"Neither," Neo answered. One security guard gave him a hearty shove.

"Quiet," he muttered gruffly. He turned smartly but almost tripped over Trinity's outstretched foot. She had tripped him on purpose – it was obvious from her barely hidden smirk. The man behind her noticed and tightened his grip on her wrists, perhaps thinking it would make her think twice before doing it again. Ha, not likely.

Neo silently counted the dead bodies. Apoc and Citadel lay dead beside each other at the back of the lobby, and Glyph had been shot dead near the entrance to the fire escape stairs.

"I was expecting some sort of half-considered, half-planned rescue attempt, but I expected less participants," Smith said, standing at ease in front of the destroyed, still smouldering elevator. "I certainly didn't expect for my luck to increase – we now have three captains of the Resistance."

"You have two!" Coyote said, staring at the body of Glyph now that he had noticed.

"My mistake. Two," Agent Smith corrected himself. Neo hated his voice.

"They'll never give you what you want!" Niobe called, pretending to be anyone but a captain.

"I think they will," Jones said. Obviously they didn't know who she really was.

"My captain is waiting outside. I can show you where if you let me live," Niobe said. Her hand was in her pocket, where her phone was. Then Neo understood. She was on the line with Lunar, the _Nadir_'s operator, and the woman in the real world was listening to the phone conversation. She would call Specter and tell him to expect them.

"You four, go with her. Keep your guns on her," Brown barked, pointing at four men. They nodded and shoved Niobe toward the entrance, through the metal detector (setting off the beep) and through the revolving glass door. She was free. She would get rid of those guards in a heartbeat, and she and Specter would be out of there. Maybe they would be able to think of an escape for the others.

"I know for a fact that we have one captain here with us," Smith said, his hands behind his back as he walked closer. "Morpheus… still intent on keeping those codes to yourself?"

"Yes," Morpheus answered.

"Step forward."

He did, without the slightest hint of fear.

"I would die before I gave up any information regarding the safety of my people," he said defiantly.

"That's interesting," Smith began, starting to pace. He was so human in those respects – he fell into completely human habits to blend in. "It is interesting that you say that. Because, you see, it isn't hard to offer your own life for a cause. That isn't a challenge for you self-sacrificing people. What becomes difficult is sacrificing someone else. Someone your foolish emotional side becomes attached to."

"No personal cost is too great for Zion," Morpheus told the agents. Agents Brown and Jones smirked. Smith cracked a small smile.

"Is that so?" Brown asked. "Our inside source, which you might know, captain, had informed us on earlier occasions that when appointed as captain, you are to choose a lieutenant as your most trusted adviser. Often, this person is of great importance to the captain. Is this true? Mr Reagan gave us a lot of useful information, among it the fact that you, Morpheus, have a close relationship with your own officer. Much like a…" here he sneered "'close friend slash parent-child association'. That was how Mr Reagan described it."

Morpheus said nothing. The guards, who were under the impression that the rebels were a part of a large, dangerous gang that called themselves Zion, stood still. The agents hadn't mentioned unreality yet. Perhaps the guards' memories would be altered so that they wouldn't remember anything strange.

Neo wondered privately where this talk of Trinity was going. It didn't sound good. Ghost stood between him and Trinity, but he could see that although she was thinking a mile a minute, her expression never changed from completely neutral.

"Would your closest ally be too great a cost, Morpheus?" Smith asked mockingly. The captain was silent.

"Would the second-in-command to Morpheus kindly step forward?" Agent Jones didn't mean it as a question. It was a well-disguised order.

No one moved. Ghost looked down, and Neo got a better glimpse of Trinity out of the corner of his eye. Would she do as Jones had asked? He saw movement out of the other eye, and glanced at the girls and Mouse. Young Ari – the one with the black-and-purple hair – took a deep breath and was about to step forward in Trinity's place, but Chase and Mouse caught her quickly before anyone noticed.

"Don't you dare," Chase whispered under her breath. Neo didn't hear her, but he saw her lips form the words.

"Well?" Jones demanded of the silent line of captured rebels. After about ten seconds of dead silence, Trinity, her face set defiantly and her eyes with a steely, determined glint, strode forward, walking past Morpheus and stopping about six metres from the agents and the guards.

"Of course it's you, why did we ask?" Smith wondered aloud. "Get your guns on her," he added to the men behind him. They followed orders, loading their rifles. "So, it's Trinity. I should have guessed. Tell me, what price would you pay for your Resistance?" He directed it at Trinity. She refused to answer, so he turned back to Morpheus. "What about you? When does the price get too high? Are those codes in your head of more value that her?"

They were forcing Morpheus to choose between the codes and Trinity! Neo would have given anything to shout out to his captain to hand over these codes that they were so desperate for.

For a few seconds, Morpheus regarded Trinity, no doubt taking in her determined look that said she wasn't afraid of anything, least of all death. Neo recalled suddenly how Switch had died immediately after making it clear that she wasn't scared to die. He couldn't – wouldn't – watch the same thing happen to Trinity.

"No cost is too great," Morpheus decided finally. He sounded wearied, strained.

"Good." Brown gave the small hand signal to the waiting guards. And Neo knew.

They were –

He didn't get time to finish the thought. The front armed guard squeezed the trigger of his gun. The line of silver bullets moved too fast, and yet they almost seemed to be moving in the slow motion of suspended horror. Neo bolted forward, but he was already too late. He had barely taken a step when the first bullet hit Trinity in the stomach, then one after another. There were seven in all, and she copped each of them without a sound. The man released the trigger, and she dropped. Neo got to her in time to catch her before her head could hit the floor.


	6. Choice

TITLE: Deja Vu 

RATING: PG-13

AUTHOR: Sólia

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? The group has freed Morpheus, but now they're all trapped in the lobby together. Trinity has been shot. Is it all over?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm getting this uploaded as quick as possible without giving you more than one chapter a day. Although I should wait longer to wickedly draw out the suspense that some people seem to be finding irritating (sorry to all those readers who keep exasperatedly reminding me of my attachment to cliffhangers). There's no serious cliffhanger at the end of this one! And Mystic Kyra, I'm sorry for making you cry breaks down in horror as to what she has done to her poor innocent reader DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS! Anyways, to finish that train of thought, Mystic Kyra: In this chapter I think I kind of make things better for you… but then I kind of make it worse. Here's a handy hint: people who like Morpheus better than Trinity; don't read this chapter, or any further.

Chapter six – Choice

Somewhere behind him, from what seemed a hundred or more miles away, Chase gave a small scream, but Neo barely noticed. No one else was speaking in the entire lobby. He had thought the wounded shoulder had bled badly. That was nothing compared to how she was bleeding now.

Sitting on the ground with his hand behind her head, Neo carefully pulled Trinity's lithe body onto his lap. She was quivering with shock, and blinking three times as much as usual. But her big blue eyes never left his face. Her gaze was like that of a curious infant, so new and eager to take in anything and everything, except that instead of being new to the world, she was nearing her end and knew it only too well.

The guard who had shot her lowered his gun and donned a hesitant, sort of guilty look as he realised what he had really done. He wouldn't meet Neo's eyes when he looked up from Trinity. Within two seconds of diverting part of his attention from her, Neo noticed her breathing lose its regularity, and immediately looked back to her. Aside from her jagged, strangled breathing, she had broken out in a cold sweat as a result of her shock.

There was no noise except for her breaths. She tried to sit up, but when Neo tilted her head and gently pulled her straighter, it was only so that she could stop choking on her own blood.

"It's okay, you're gonna be fine, you have to be," he told her quietly. No one else could hear. Maybe she couldn't, either. "Please be okay. Please, you have to be okay."

She couldn't answer, but she lost the energy to keep sitting half up, and lay back. Neo cradled her like a child, unable to contemplate what he'd do in a few minutes when she ceased to breathe at all.

"Morpheus, you're human. You must have feelings, emotions. Surely you aren't so cold and heartless that watching this scene does nothing to you at all? You aren't remotely moved?" Smith asked. He was trying to make Morpheus look bad in front of the guards and also get him to give up the codes.

The captain kept his mouth closed, and continued staring at the floor without seeing.

Neo stroked Trinity's pale, cooling cheek affectionately. She was going; life was leaving her even as he watched her. Her gasps became much more laboured, blood dripped from her lips. But never in all of that time did she stop staring into Neo's own eyes. It was beautiful and horrifying all at once – it was like she knew she was dying and had decided he was going to be the last thing she would see.

She was dying. If Neo had pretended to be Morpheus' ranking officer instead, this would never have happened. Trinity, strong, beautiful Trinity, wouldn't be a mere minute from death.

At this thought, he almost broke down. How could she be on her way out?

"Trinity, please, no, don't go," he whispered to her. Her unwavering eyes should have been disturbingly eerie. And her shaking. And her choking gasps. And her fatal gunshot wounds, which were bleeding worse than anything that Neo had ever felt before. Why her? The blood from her stomach had stained Neo's lap and his hand, lying across her waistline, was covered by it. He hadn't looked, but he could feel it. But how could he care about that? She was dying.

"You can't just leave me here. Please, please, Trinity… don't go anywhere I can't," Neo pleaded uselessly. He looked down at his hand on her stomach. "Oh, shit…" He hadn't really looked at her wounds before. Now he saw what lay beneath his hand. Seven tiny red holes in her middle, bleeding badly, so badly. "Christ, what am I gonna do? Oh, hell… Trin, sweetie… Oh, no, oh, _shit_."

Her quivering lips opened as though to ask something, but she had no voice.

"She has not thirty seconds to live, she's suffering… and yet you won't give up the codes, Morpheus?" Agent Smith mocked. To him, the fact that Trinity was at death's door was nothing but a mind game he could play against her captain.

A game…

This whole system – it wasn't real. It was like a game, a game with rules and cheats. To go back on the system, to rewind and alter what might have otherwise happened… An idea formed in Neo's head.

"Hold on for just one minute longer, please," he murmured to Trinity. Of course she didn't answer. Her eyes were fluttering, ready to close for the last time. But she held on, forcing her eyelids open to keep watching him. He looked up at the agents. Those cold, ruthless bastards… "Morpheus doesn't have the codes."

"What?" Brown asked sharply.

"Trinity does. Morpheus arranged for her to learn them instead to avoid things like this," Neo said loudly. Would they fall for it? "Please – this is a system, can't it be changed? Can't you take the bullets back?"

Jones stared at him along with the others before he said, in a slow, deliberate voice meant to vex him greatly, "That is possible. Why are you telling us?"

"Because I can't watch this any longer." That much was true. "I'm not allowed to tell you about the code swap, but this is unbearable. Please, take the bullets back."

"Well, we wouldn't want those bullets to go to waste, now, would we?" Agent Jones asked, a slow smile spreading.

"I don't care. I'll take the bullets," Neo offered desperately. "Anything. Let her live."

"Her for you?" Smith checked. Neo was about to nod, but Morpheus said, "No, me."

"What?" Neo demanded. Morpheus looked solemn.

"Neo, it's my fault this has happened to her. I'll take the bullets. Zion needs you. The Resistance needs you. Trinity. Mouse."

"Sir, I can't," Neo insisted. He couldn't let Morpheus die after they had all gone to such lengths to get him back alive. He glanced at Trinity as she tried to say something, but then looked back up at his captain, determined to block those horrible gasps from his ears for as long as he had to.

"Yes, you can." And Neo understood Morpheus' hidden meaning – if he died, the chances of the agents getting the Zion mainframe codes would die with him. Zion wouldn't be destroyed. Trinity would be alive.

The Oracle had said that this would happen. She had said that Neo would have the choice between his or his captain's lives. This choice was his to make.

"Neo, she needs you," Morpheus added, playing on Neo's obvious weakness – his closest friend, Trinity. Maybe he was right… but no, he couldn't be. Morpheus wanted Neo to live because he thought that he was something he wasn't.

"Morpheus, I'm not… who, or what, you think I am," Neo said quietly, stroking Trinity's hair from her eyes – not that it was bothering her. That had to be the least of her worries. "The Oracle said-"

"She told you what you needed to hear, Neo, like she always does. If every obvious sign of your identity didn't convince me, seeing you _now_ would. You are the One, Neo, and the Resistance needs you. Please. Let me die for my mistake before she does. Please, Neo."

Morpheus _knew_, did he? How? There wasn't time to ask. But how could Neo let his captain die? How could he choose himself over Morpheus?

He was just about to answer to the agents, say, 'yes, me,' when a shivering hand touched his arm. Trinity stared up at him with her last energy, her eyes portraying her horror and pleading. Her bloodstained lips moved uncertainly. Neo recognised the unspoken word she tried to say as 'no'. She was asking him not to die for her… How could he go against that?

In his silence, Morpheus took his chance.

"Let her live, take the codes, whatever, in place of me," he called. Smith didn't speak. He nodded.

Neo took his hand from Trinity's stomach as her eyes closed, but was in for a shock. The bullets were slowly backtracking themselves – moving out of her body into open air. The wounds disappeared, and the only proof there had ever been seven small holes in her was the mass volume of blood on her and Neo's clothes and hands.

The bullets floated in midair, a foot away from Trinity. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat forward immediately, coughing because of the blood in her mouth and throat. Neo held her while she tried to clear her airways with choking.

"Neo, one last thing," Morpheus said. Neo looked over at him, torn between looking after Trinity and rushing to his captain to apologise for letting him try to sacrifice himself. "Promise me you'll take care of Trinity, even if you don't love her."

"Oh, um, sure," Neo agreed quietly, confused by the favour.

The bullets disappeared, then reappeared in front of Morpheus' chest. Trinity, gasping, forced herself to look up. She shook her head, opened her mouth to say something.

It was as if the mysterious time displacement surrounding the unmoving bullets snapped. The bullets went back into real time and flew into Morpheus' chest, spurting a little blood. The captain made a strangled noise and keeled over. He would die quickly – much quicker than Trinity would have if left to die. The wounds were worse.

"No!" Trinity cried, trying but not succeeding to stand.

"Trinity, don't there's nothing you can do," Neo told her, pulling her closer. She shook her head firmly and struggled away from his hold, but hadn't any energy to do so for long and collapsed against him, overwhelmed.

"Why couldn't you just leave me?" she whispered heartbrokenly, hugging him tightly. "Why can't I die after going through that… sort of thing? Morpheus…" She gave a soft sob, and let her chin rest on his shoulder. Neo held her tighter, pressing his cheek against hers. He was almost surprised to find that it was wet with tears. "Why did you have to bring me back, if it meant you or Morpheus…"

She missed her captain already. Maybe Neo _should_ have died instead…

"Trinity, shh, it's okay, really," he murmured into her ear. She ignored him except to tighten her arms, like she had finally found someone she couldn't lose, too. "I'll give myself up for Morpheus-"

"No!" she muttered forcefully. "Don't. You promised Morpheus… Please, you can't."

She broke down crying again, tears that he felt rather than heard, and Neo realised that she _really_ didn't want him to die.

He had forgotten that there were others in the room. Mouse and Ari were couched beside Morpheus in his last moments, trying to make him more comfortable. Ghost was standing back hesitantly, unable to decide which of the two (Morpheus or Trinity) he should console. Chase had silent tears running down her face and her arms folded, and her crewmate Coyote had an arm around her shoulders. The guards had had their memories altered again, so they had no idea what was going on. The agents watched coldly.

And Neo gently held Trinity, whose eyes were tightly closed, as Morpheus gave his final gasp and died. A single, beat-up looking guard limped in through the door.

"She got away – attacked us all… I just woke up, sirs," the man told the agents. He was one of the four who had accompanied Niobe out the front door to collect her captain. Niobe was safe, then. Trinity pulled herself together and looked up.

"I'll call ahead, make sure the exit is cut off," Brown muttered to Smith. They were going to cut the hardline. Niobe and Specter must be waiting elsewhere for some reason. "We have their position. I'll see to it that they don't make it to their destination."

They were going to cut the hardline and attack Niobe and Specter. Great. Even then, Agent Brown was taking out his cell phone and dialling.

Trinity looked over at the three rebels still standing in line. Her hand signals were simple – she pointed at Chase, Coyote and Ghost and then indicated the door. Her message wasn't difficult: you three, make sure their plan doesn't happen. With little hesitation, they turned and started for the door, but the guards stopped them.

"Not so fast," one of them snapped at Ghost. Trinity looked up at the agents, not bothering to clear her face and eyes of tears. They didn't change their opinion of her because of her appearance – they hated her all the same.

"They all go free if I hand over the codes," she said. God, she could act. And she could take charge.

"There are how many codes?" Smith demanded.

"Three. For each code, you let a group go." Trinity had learned from Cypher's dealing. "Starting with those three."

"Fine," Agent Smith agreed slowly. He nodded at the guards, who stood down suspiciously. "Let them go." Chase, the first to react probably because of her desperate need to get away from the dead bodies and the horrible memories of the lobby, bolted for the doors before Ghost and Coyote got a chance to consider it. But they were quickly on her heels.

-

Outside, rubbing the tears from her cheek, Chase was the one to spot the five road bikes parked in well-placed parking spaces in front of the building. She climbed onto the first one, the smallest, and adjusted her dark shades.

"Good eye," Coyote said, leaping onto the second and starting the engine. Thank God Chase had taken those driving programs on all vehicles, including motorcycles. She was now an expert at starting and riding motorbikes.

"Let's go. We'll have to cut the police off from getting to the hardline, and warn Niobe of the attack she's in for before they get there. What's say we split up?" Ghost asked quickly. Chase nodded, revving the engine. She had nothing against a little alone time cruising the streets at illegally high speeds to level out her horror at what she had witnessed that day.

"You can't go alone, it's against policy," Coyote added to her apologetically. "I'll go with you. Ghost, you make sure those police never get to that hardline, okay? Chase and I'll warn Niobe and Specter. Cool?"

Ghost gave a quick nod, revved the engine and sped off. Being the ranking officer to Niobe, he knew ahead of time where the exit should be. Chase allowed herself a small skid before she keeled off in the other direction. Coyote was calling Lunar. Apparently she was still distraught.

"Yes, I know, Lunar, but please, where are Specter and Captain Niobe?" he asked patiently, the phone wedged unsafely between his shoulder and ear. Only Coyote could carelessly ride a speeding motorbike in peak hour, mid-city traffic while also talking to a miserable operator over a cell phone and not worry obsessively.

"Gotcha." He carefully hung up and pocketed the phone. He replaced his hands on the steering handles and looked across to Chase, who was nervously avoiding cars. "She said they're at the Quartz Dragon."

"What the hell is that?" Chase shouted back, dodging a bright purple mini she should have seen coming. It wasn't difficult to spot.

"An old candle shop, a few dozen blocks away. Closed down. We have to get there before the law dudes do," Coyote explained, haphazardly glancing at her every now and then. Chase prayed to anyone listening that he didn't cause an accident and kill himself while she adjusted her foot on the foot pedal, moving her bike faster.

-

"They're gone, so what are the codes?" Smith asked. Neo, beside Trinity still, felt her tense a little as she remembered that she had no idea what the codes were.

"The first one is… k-c-i-r-p-s-s-e-l-t-r-a-e-h-a-e-r-a-u-o-y," she said, spelling it out. Smith nodded, no doubt adding it to his memory files.

"And the others?" Agent Brown asked, prompting her to continue when she was quiet.

"Let another group go, I'll tell you." Trinity nodded at Ari and Mouse, completely avoiding looking at the body of Morpheus. The guards looked up at the agents in disbelief – for them, what code was so great that so many known, wanted terrorists could be let free?

"Release them," Jones agreed, and Ari slowly stood, whispering something under her breath as she followed Mouse slowly out of the lobby. Neo heard another motorcycle engine start and speed off with the two riders.

"The second code…" Trinity trailed off, covering her moment of creative thought with the pretence of being nervous. "The second one is s-s-a-y-m-s-s-i-k."

"The third?" Smith sounded excited. Trinity allowed Neo to pull her to her feet.

"It's f-l-e-s-r-u-o-y-w-e-r-c-s-o-g." She turned and left the building, clutching Neo's arm tightly, as though much more frightened than she appeared. None of the disbelieving guards tried to stop them. In the parking spaces next to the road stood one last motorcycle. Neo let her go and climbed onto the seat. He glanced back at her, standing forlornly on the footpath with her arms tight around her waist, her cheeks smudged with tears.

"Coming?" he asked. She didn't answer or make any move at all. "Or would you like to stay there?"

"I'm coming," she said quietly, stepping over and climbing onto the bike behind him in one movement. Even misery couldn't take her natural elegance away. Neo revved the motorbike. She wrapped her arms around his waist and lay her face on his shoulder.

"You okay? I mean… That was a dumb question," Neo realised aloud. Mentally, he was kicking himself for that. Are you okay? What kind of sensitive-guy question was that? Yeah, she would be _fine_ – her captain had just been killed right before her eyes, and he'd died to stop her suffering. Four of her shipmates had also died along with Morpheus. Two more of her friends had died, too. Her plan had gone to hell, she was a mess, and she'd been forced to tell the agents of the special entry codes to Zion's mainframe. They were doomed.

That reminded him.

"Hey, were those the real codes?" Neo asked, waiting for a small break in the traffic. Trinity tightened her grip and relaxed a little.

"I'll tell you in a minute. For now, just ride really fast, okay?"

-

Ghost carefully manoeuvred through the peak hour traffic, weaving his bike in and around cars. The drivers sure as hell weren't happy – they were tooting and yelling at him through their windows. But he didn't really care. He had to reach the hardline. In this traffic, he would get there long before the police did. At least, he hoped.

Four more blocks.

-

Niobe heard the bikes first. Specter was busy checking the tiny candle shop for useful items, but he wasn't very successful. Two motorcycles pulled up out the front of the shop, and the two riders leaped off and bashed through the unlocked door into the shop.

"Captain! Specter," Coyote said. He was slightly flushed from the ride, as was his companion, Chase.

"How did you get out of there?" Specter demanded. They had been looking for things to help them get the others out of the building.

"Trinity making up some codes so that they wouldn't kill her, too," the young man said quickly. "Isn't important. They'll all be out soon, if she gets her way. What matters is that there's a squadron of police heading this way right now, and we need to avoid them."

"Got it," Niobe said with a curt nod. She followed the other two back out of the candle shop. The mini van wouldn't be of much use in this hellish traffic, but those two bikes would sure be helpful. Niobe jumped on before Specter could. He didn't object to sitting behind her. After all, she was the best driver the Resistance had to offer.

"Ghost could use our help defending the hardline," Chase called from behind Coyote, flicking her hair out of her face. Niobe nodded again and led the way down the street.


	7. Loss

TITLE: Deja Vu 

RATING: PG-13

AUTHOR: Sólia

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? Morpheus is dead, having sacrificed himself for Trinity's life. Apoc, Captain Glyph, and Citadel have been killed before they could escape from the agents. Now those left alive must reach the exit before the agents stop them – who will make it out, and who will not?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sorry to anyone who was offended by my killing of Morpheus. It was either him or Trinity and unfortunately I like Trinity better.

In this story there will be a total of ten chapters, just to let you know now. The next two (chapters eight and nine) are significantly shorter than this or any of the previous chapters, for some reason I am not aware of. But chapter ten is pretty long, I think.

Thanks, again, to my loyalest reviewers: Mystic Kyra, Brooke and Kris; and also to Lyidia, who I forgot to acknowledge in my last chapter. Thanks heaps for your encouragement.

Chapter Seven – Loss

With Trinity directing him with precise instructions from Sparks, Neo managed to get himself all the way to the Heart O' the City Hotel without being harmed. But he wasn't exactly pleased by what he saw there.

"Beat us to it, bastards," he muttered. He really had no respect for the law today. The police were already parked out the front of the hotel.

Ghost was inside.

"This is great," Neo said darkly, slowing the motorbike right down. Trinity looked up.

"Welcome to my world," she said sardonically.

Neo parked the bike nearby, but was pissed off when a guard spotted them and hurried over.

"Ah, trooper," the man said with a grim smile. "Nice to see you back. A bit late, though. And where's your armour?"

For a moment Neo tried to think why this man knew him, and then recognised him as Mr Superior, the leader of the armed troops who had attacked them in the other building earlier that day.

"Oh, um, yes sir," Neo replied quickly, sitting straighter. Trinity gave the officer a hard, even look as she pressed herself a little closer to Neo. He understood the message – hurry up.

"Where's your armour?" Mr Superior asked again.

"Sir, we were attacked by the fugitives upon taking this woman back to her home," Neo explained. Trinity moved her head back onto his shoulder. Mr Superior looked her over.

"Our doctor said that she was most uncooperative earlier today," he said stiffly. "Stephen proclaimed that you might have mental injury."

"I might."

"Sir, with your permission, I would like to test my theory." Neo waited silently.

"Theory?" Mr Superior asked sceptically. "And what will that be?"

"The fugitives have an interest in Miss Anderson," Neo made up. "If I went inside with her I could use her as a lure-"

"No, soldier," the man snapped. "We do not use civilians as bait."

"He has my permission," Trinity said. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

"We have reason to believe that whoever is inside this building isn't one of the men from earlier today," Mr Superior said sniffily, "therefore Miss Anderson will have no value to him." He looked her up and down. "You should have gone home to your children, miss."

"I did go home. They're with a friend of mine," she said simply. "I came back with Bob to see if I could be of any help."

Neo spotted two more motorcycles, each bearing two riders, speeding into view. Coyote and Niobe pulled up before they were seen by anyone else and turned to go behind the building instead.

Mouse and Ari were still missing somewhere.

"I'm afraid not. But you're both in even worse condition than before. Trooper, please accompany Miss Anderson to the medical van to see Stephen."

"Yes, sir," Neo said tiredly, getting off the bike as the superior left. Trinity swung herself after him and stood beside him, looking around. She pointed at a fire-escape steel stairway.

"Let's go before that ass of a doctor turns up," she said, not waiting for a reply before she ran over. Neo followed her, hoping that none of the police in front of the building could see them. As he got to the second storey, however, he heard a loud male voice from amongst the police.

"Hey, look! What are they doing? Isn't that the hostage?" Stephen yelled.

"Shit," Neo said in unison with Trinity, looking down quickly. The police were raising their weapons and running into the building. That wasn't good.

Trinity kicked a window open and barged into the empty room. Neo climbed in after her and pushed the unlocked door open. They hurried out into the hall. Another door, down the hall a few metres, slammed open. Trinity snatched out her automatic pistol and aimed it at the open door, ready to kill anyone who came through it, but it was only Niobe, Coyote, Specter and Chase that entered the hall at a run and stopped at the sight of the weapon.

"Trinity!" Coyote said, blanching a little when he spotted her with the gun directed at his forehead. She lowered the weapon and put it away without a word.

"Ghost is here somewhere?" Niobe demanded. She hadn't been filled in properly. Chase nodded.

"He should be. He said he'd be here," she said.

"He'll be in with the exit if he hasn't left already," Specter said, leading the way down the hall. They all followed at a jog, with Chase lagging behind to make sure there were no surprise rear attacks.

Room 303 was their exit. It came into view at the same time that the guards appeared.

"Get them!" the police captain yelled as his men charged towards the rebels.

"Go!" Trinity snapped, shoving Coyote and Niobe towards the door quickly. They had all stopped at the sight of the police, but now most of them moved to the door. Chase, however, panicked and turned to run away. "No, Chay!" Trinity yelled uselessly. More police entered the hallway and cut her off.

"Stop her!" the police captain ordered the reinforcements at the other end of the hall. "Get her!"

"Sir, she's a kid," someone in the police force said hesitantly, although Neo couldn't see who it was because someone had advanced on Chase and attacked her. She hadn't been expecting it – after all, who attacks an unarmed teenage girl? – but she defended herself instantly all the same.

Neo was about to move into the room after Niobe, but he thought of Chase, currently locked in combat against someone. The police were unwilling to hurt her. They stepped away, and Neo saw. An agent. Agent Smith was here.

Niobe had her phone out.

"Coyote, Specter, one of you first, Lunar's got the line," she said quickly. Coyote lifted the ringing phone off the cradle on the table and held it to his ear.

"Get in," Trinity ordered, trying to push Neo inside before she could go after Smith and Chase herself. But Neo knew there was no way she and the young girl would be able to beat the agent and fight off the policemen, too. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into room 303 despite her protests, then kicked the man closest to the door in the head. He punched the next one in the jaw and then in the side, and kneed him in the abdomen. As the first two dropped to the floor, Neo kicked the guy behind him and, after a strong punch to the guy before him, spun around to finish the man off with three punches in the side of the head.

-

Chase, losing dismally against her opponent, was thrown into a wall, her impact so hard that the plaster cracked behind her. She dropped to the floor and scrambled to her feet. She was no match for the agent and she knew it. He went to kick her in the head but she had just enough time and sense to duck that and the next one.

Down the hall, she saw out of the corner of her eye that someone was keeping the policemen from getting into the exit room and from helping the agent out. Was it Neo, Trinity's 'friend'?

One second of wandering concentration was enough time for the agent to grab Chase by the neck and force her against the peeling wall of the hallway.

"Miss Evans, isn't it?" he asked in a low, terrible voice. Being strangled, Chase didn't get much chance to answer.

-

Agent Smith was strangling Chase. Neo glanced at Trinity, standing behind him. She left the safety of the room and took over his job of giving the others a chance to escape and fighting off the police. Neo ran over to Chase's assistance.

Smith was just saying something like, "Too bad I didn't meet you on a better day. I mightn't have needed to kill you," by the time Neo arrived. The agent tightened his grip around the teenager's throat and drew back his fist for a powerful blow, but Neo stood on one foot and kicked him hard in the back of the neck. Furious, Smith dropped Chase, and sent his fist towards Neo instead. The girl drove her fist into Agent Smith's stomach before bolting. She could be of no help now and knew it. So she left Neo under attack from the agent's heavy, fast punches. He wasn't quite as good, but nearly, a lot better than the girl was. He ducked below a punch, dodged a kick, caught an ill-meaning fist, copped a punch to the stomach, and sent one back.

Smith raised a leg quickly to kick Neo, but he shoved it away before it could hit his hip. This wasn't going to be much fun.

-

Ari kicked the window of the old church inwards. Whose smart idea was it to position an exit in the church? Did churches even have phone lines? Maybe they did now – Ari had been outside of the Matrix world for three and a half years. She made a mental note to ask Chase if their old school church had.

"Where's everyone else?" Mouse asked her, squeezing through the small hole she had made in the pretty stained glass.

"Elsewhere," she answered. Distantly, she could hear the phone ringing. Then her own mobile rang. She answered it quickly. It had to be Lunar, the operator, calling to say who had the line out of her and the _Nebuchadnezzar_.

"Ari, the _Neb._'s got the hardline. Mouse will have to go first," Lunar said softly. That was a problem. Lunar was always bouncy and fun. Of course, her ex-partner and best friend, Citadel, had died only half an hour ago or so.

"Mouse, you're first," Ari told her companion as she strode through the pews toward the sound of the ringing phone. The older boy nodded and looked like he wanted to say something, but instead walked ahead, going into the adjoining office and answering the exit. "Lunar, where are the others?"

"Heart O' the City Hotel, under attack from police and agents," Lunar answered, an edge of worry in her voice. Mouse disappeared into the phone line. "I just got Coyote and Specter – they're fine."

"And Chase?"

"That's why Sparks has the church line – I've got the hotel one. She's almost in the room to answer."

-

Trinity leaned into a vicious scorpion kick, which took out the guard she was attacking. Chase ran over, leaped into the air, placed her hands firmly onto the next guard's shoulders, and flipped herself over.

"What the…?" the policeman gasped. Chase landed perfectly behind him and elbowed him sharply in the ribs, then spun to punch him in the face. He dropped to the ground, alive and generally well, but winded and sporting a broken nose.

"Go," Trinity muttered, grabbing the girl's wrist and pushing her into the room. Niobe indicated the phone, then moved out to help Trinity before the phone could ring again.

Teamed with Niobe, Trinity found that she had more confidence. Not that she wasn't capable of downing two dozen policemen herself – this would just speed up the process, so that she could help Neo faster.

"This could have gone better," Niobe muttered, not even sparing a glance over her shoulder as she moved back-to-back with her. "We should never have gone ahead with this."

"Next time something this _ridiculous-_" here Trinity stressed her word by ducking below a punch and immediately crouching to swing her leg at the guard's feet, and he toppled "-happens, I'll remember that I should listen to you first." She straightened and impressed a guard with her speedy chops and blocks, which didn't really impress him much at all when she moved onto him and struck him in the jaw. She proceeded to knee him in the groin and break his collarbone with a perfected chop.

"I didn't mean that," the captain answered. She punched her policeman, and he dropped to his knees. Niobe viciously lifted her knee into his chin, then kicked him in the chest.

Two left standing. Trinity took one, Niobe the other. Within ten seconds, both were lying on the floor with their friends.

-

Neo kicked the agent in the side twice, smashed his glasses, kneed him in the groin – something he had just seen Trinity do out of the corner of his eye – and punched him in the head at least three times in the space of ten seconds, but nothing slowed the inhuman man. Smith blocked Neo's next three blows, then kicked him so hard in the chest that he literally flew through the air and crashed into the plasterboard of the hotel wall. Thankfully he landed on his feet and was able to defend himself against the barrage of punches and such directed at his head. But only just. It would be so nice if this would just magically end.

-

"No, what are you doing? Morpheus didn't hire you for your craziness," Niobe said, grabbing Trinity's arm. Trinity gave her a weird look, then realised. She hadn't noticed that she had actually started moving toward Neo and Agent Smith with the unconscious intent of helping. Not that she could be of much help.

"I can't stand here and do nothing," she said in defence of her action.

-

Agent Smith grabbed Neo's shirt and threw him away from the wall – and into the other one, face first. Neo felt the broken, jagged plaster dig into his cheek, cutting him. His head ached from the impact, making him too dizzy to stop Smith from pulling him away and turning him around. He managed a punch into the agent's nose, but of course it didn't hinder him at all. Smith pushed his second, weak blow away easily and pushed him back against the wall again.

Neo hadn't known that such speed could have existed. Smith went into a blur of motion, punching him in the stomach repeatedly. It was so painful, but all he could do was close his eyes and grit his teeth in agony. Who could have known that agents were so fast? The fists hit him, hard, again and again, at least five to a second in time.

-

"You have to," Niobe said, standing a little straighter as Agent Smith started his million-punches-in-so-many-seconds routine. How painful for the new guy. She was glad that she had her hand tight around Trinity's arm. She felt a small amount of responsibility for Morpheus' second-in-command now that he was dead, but at the moment, Trinity was actually leaning against her grip, dying to rush to the aid of Neo. And Niobe had never, in all the years she had known her, seen her so desperate to get nearer to an agent, for any reason. The young woman was terrified of them – that was the only fear she would admit to. Never before had she wanted to move closer to an agent, especially Smith, for anyone.

"You don't understand," Trinity said insistently, turning to give Niobe a wide-eyed, pleading look that was completely untypical of this hard, strong young woman that reminded the captain often of herself.

"No, you're right," Niobe agreed, yanking her back a little.

-

When Smith was finished, he roughly pulled Neo forward into the middle of the hall, and then slammed his crooked elbow into his back, between his shoulder blades. Winded and coughing up blood, Neo collapsed. When was this going to end? Trinity and Niobe were watching from the other end of the hall, near the door to room 303, from which the continual ringing of the exit phone sounded. If they left now, before Smith killed him (which was definitely his purpose) they should get out in time. Otherwise the evil agent would come after them.

Neo had the knowledge of enough deaths on his mind already – Morpheus, Switch, Tank, Dozer, Apoc, Captain Glyph, Citadel… He didn't want to die worrying about the last living captain of their company, and Trinity – the latter in particular.

-

"Oh, God," Trinity whispered. She watched in silent horror as Neo weakly tried to get to his feet but didn't manage. Blood was dripping from his lips onto the floor. Smith kicked Neo in the side ferociously, ruthlessly. The poor thing cringingly drew back into a ball, trying to protect himself from Agent Smith's kicks.

She didn't notice one of the four sort-of able-bodied policemen suddenly start to gasp as his body was changed into that of an agent. Niobe did, and instantly had her gun in her hand to stop any sort of agent congregation occurring. She fired repeatedly at the man, without any expression at all. He was dead before he could be taken over. She moved onto the next one while Trinity tensely watched Smith draw out his automatic pistol. She knew what was going to happen now, but it couldn't… Neo couldn't just _die_…

"You can't!" she shouted in disbelief. Smith ignored her and rested one foot on Neo's side, using it to roll him onto his stomach.

-

And Neo knew what was coming. He heard Trinity's words, "You can't!" and knew it. If that hadn't convinced him, the sound of Agent Smith cocking his gun would have.

Neo didn't have the energy to yell for Trinity and Niobe to run like he would have liked to have.

Without a single word, Smith pulled the trigger. Neo made a tiny choking sound as the first bullet went into his back. Sound changed. No one was speaking, nothing was happening… the gunshot, and the next one, which hurt just as much, and some electrical sound in the background were the only noises he could hear.

Smith fired again and again, six bullets in all, all of them painful. But the pain seemed to lessen at the last ones because his lungs, heart and so forth had been ruptured and he started to lose consciousness after about the fourth.

Neo could feel the blood seeping from the blasts in the front of his chest, into a thick pool beneath him. The cold-hearted agent used his foot to roll him onto his side. Staring upwards in his last moments, Neo wondered how something could be created to be so cold and evil, and also why Trinity was still here with Niobe. If Trinity was in some stupid state of shock, the captain seemed practical enough to force her out of there. But neither had moved.

Consciousness slipped away, out of his unsteady grip. His last thought was of his and Trinity's failed attempt to save their captain. Then blackness was all around.

-

Silence reigned. Even Niobe was glancing between Neo and Trinity in confusion.

He was dead? It wasn't possible…

-

"What the hell happened?" Mouse demanded, pointing at Neo as his pulse screen suddenly showed a dead straight line with a long, horrible beep that never ended. Dead?

"He's dead," Sparks muttered, a little embarrassed that he had to be the one to say.

"But he can't be dead," Mouse insisted, mystified. "He's the One."

"Apparently not," Ghost answered quietly. "Niobe and Trinity – why haven't they gotten out?"

"He's the One!" the youngest recruit repeated.

"We have to get them out!" Ghost said loudly, ignoring the boy.

-

_Neo is dead. But Neo can't be dead. Neo has to be alive. Neo is dead_. The thoughts zipped through Trinity's head numbly. Niobe gave her an urgent jerk, but she ignored her. Neo couldn't be dead. It simply wasn't possible. She didn't notice the two new agents, either, until one of them shoved her back into the captain. Where had they come from? Maybe they had materialised from those still-alive men on the floor. She would have to actually kill all of her enemies in future, not leave them half-alive.

_Neo is dead, but he has to be alive and fine. He can't just die. Not now, not ever – never in my lifetime. Neo is dead._

Something inside her snapped when Agent Jones checked Neo's pulse and announced, "Gone," but Niobe's grip was tight and she hadn't the angry strength yet to pull away.

"Well, goodbye, Mr Anderson," Smith said in his silky, terrible voice. She hated that voice. She hated him altogether. And now he'd taken Neo away from her. That was enough to infuriate her.

"You evil bastards!" Trinity pulled away from Niobe's surprised grasp and ran at Brown, jumping into the air to kick him hard in the head. When she landed in a low crouch, she swung her leg out into his and spun into a standing position, using the spin to punch him in the face. She kneed him in the side and directed a chop at his collarbone, kneed him in the stomach twice while she slammed her fist into his head three times. All of this happened much too quick for him to respond, which had to be some sort of miracle or record. Trinity gave the agent a high kick that unfortunately flew over his head when he ducked, but since he was ducked down, she was able to jam her knee into his jaw before he could straighten.

Someone grabbed her arms and twisted them behind her back, useless. She left her shoulders to carry her weight and leaned back, lifting her feet from the ground. Whoever had her leaned back also, so that she wouldn't be able to get her feet back to the floor afterwards. Pretending not to care, Trinity kicked her heels into whoever's kneecaps and smacked her head back into his face. She heard his glasses break, but of course, she already knew that it was an agent. Either Smith or Jones, she didn't know or care which. Brown dusted himself off while Niobe hurried forward, cursing Trinity for her rash actions under her breath. She didn't last quite as long as Trinity, quickly shoved into a wall and pinned, her face pressed against the peeling plaster and her brown eyes narrowed.

"Ah, Trinity," Agent Smith said in his smirking, evilly smooth voice. He came from somewhere closer to Neo – Neo's _dead_ body – so it wasn't him that held Trinity suspended in the air.

He moved slowly around into view. He seemed amused by Trinity's furious blue eyes. She wanted nothing but to kill him. He stepped closer.

"Interesting codes you gave me," he said, almost smiling. "Very funny. Especially when you read them backwards. But you know, I'm not really a 'heartless prick'."

"You aren't?" Trinity hissed. "Why don't you do something to prove it?"

Smith got a little closer.

"You two will be spending a bit of time with me soon anyway, since I have seen how your friends would rather come in and try to save your captured than unplug them," the agent said. "Then you can tell for yourself what I'm really like."

He was going to use the serum to break into her and Niobe's minds. At least now she wouldn't have the mental energy to obsess over Neo's death.

Maybe, just maybe, he was just alive, just breathing enough to keep his lungs going? Maybe he could still hear her if she spoke to him?

Determined to find out, Trinity kicked out viciously, catching Smith in the chest and pushing him right back. She leaned forward as far as the grip would allow, then slammed her head back so hard she felt dizzy herself. When the death grip pinning her arms was loosened, she managed to elbow Agent Jones in the ribs, and he released her. She stumbled in her landing.

Thankfully, Niobe had decided to escape, too. Somehow she got Brown to let her go and she fought him away from her as she backed in the direction of the room 303. Jones and Smith moved over to help their fellow to contain her, so Trinity took the opportunity to drop down beside Neo unnoticed.

"Neo?" she asked, scared. She brushed a lock of her black hair behind her ear and touched his wrist. No pulse. She rested the same hand on his jaw, one finger over his pulse point. He was dead. He wasn't breathing or anything, just dead.

He was dead, despite the impossibility of it all.

"How can you be dead? No, you just can't be," she said, her voice lowering. When she continued, it was almost a whisper. "No, you can't die. The Oracle… You can't die."

She had told him once, but he had thought that she was acting. What he didn't understand was that she really did love him. She didn't mean to, but when one of the agents grabbed at her, she blurted it out again.

"You can't be dead because I love you!" she screamed, fighting Smith off her and taking Neo's head in her hands. His eyes were closed, deep in permanent sleep, the darkest night of all. His skin was even paler than ever before. She stroked his black hair from his face and kissed him quickly, their last.

Hands dragged her away from Neo and threw her against the wall.

"Sentimental humans," Agent Smith said. He punched her in the jaw twice, holding her still with one hand on her shoulder.

"Any ideas?" Niobe yelled angrily.

"Go!" Trinity answered, her head snapping to one side from the next blow. The other woman hesitated for only a moment, then fought Brown and Jones away from her and got her break, using her chance to bolt for the still-ringing phone. Both agents followed her into the room. Obviously, they were too late. Niobe must have answered the exit and left the Matrix behind.

Jones and Brown strode back into the room, almost human in their disappointment.

Agent Smith punched Trinity again.

-

The bodies of Citadel and Glyph lay silently in their chairs, disconnected, not that that mattered. Ari took up Lunar's seat at the operator's station while the older woman cried over Citadel and helped Specter move the bodies. She stared at what she saw on the screen.

He was dead. Neo, Trinity's 'friend', was dead. But Chase had said that Morpheus believed him to be the Chosen One, who in turn couldn't die until his purpose was fulfilled. She had heard it all before.

"Chase!" she said, pointing at the screen. Her best friend walked over, dusting her hands on her legs.

"What? Hey, Trinity's being killed, look!" She pointed it out.

"It's Neo. He's dead! I thought Trinity said he was the One?"

"She did. Sounded like she believed it, too. But he's dead? That doesn't make sense," Chase insisted.

-

Smith pulled his fist back for the final strike, which Trinity knew would render her unconscious, but she didn't close her eyes. She wasn't so cowardly. She wouldn't let her enemy know she was scared. He didn't need to know and he never would.

He let the punch go – it was going to knock her out – but someone caught it in midair, stopping it from ever touching her.


	8. Return

TITLE: Deja Vu

RATING: PG-13

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? Trinity died in Neo's arms, and was then revived by Morpheus's sacrifice, only to lose Neo to the agents. Niobe has escaped, and it looks like everything is over for Trinity – but guess who is back to stop the agents!

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I love you, reviewers! Thanks to Mystic Kyra, Brooke, Lyidia, and to Sydney Andrews. I'd also like to thank anyone else who has been reading this story, even if you're not reviewing. Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Chapter eight – Return

"What the hell?" Niobe demanded, staring at the screen in disbelief. But Ghost, Mouse and Sparks had no answers for her.

-

Trinity barely noticed that she had stopped breathing. Agent Smith hesitated in surprise and disbelief, his fist still and unmoving in Neo's grip.

Neo?

It was impossible but inevitable that he should be standing there, perfectly alive and well, keeping her conscious. It wasn't possible that he was alive, but it was also impossible that he had died in the first place, right? Who was she to complain?

"Impossible," Smith murmured. Brown and Jones stood, silent, at the other end of the hall. Neo didn't answer, but he twisted the agent's arm back painfully and held it. Smith took his hand away from Trinity's shoulder and went to punch him, but Neo blocked.

Suddenly realising that she hadn't breathed for a while, Trinity swallowed a few uneven mouthfuls of air, caught in shock and rapture.

He was alive!

Neo seemed slightly surprised to find that he was able to block and deflect all of Smith's furious punches with ease. He looked amazed but bored. For every punch Agent Smith threw at Neo, he was able to push it away with the most amazing speed Trinity had ever seen, although he seemed to think he was moving at normal speed.

He blocked a blow of Smith's that Trinity herself would have copped if she were the one fighting, then kicked the agent into the wall, shattering the plaster. Neo launched himself at his enemy, and, to everyone's disbelief, his hand disappeared _inside_ the agent. Smith gave a furious howl but was unable to do anything as Neo jerked his wrist and yanked something inside the agent's gut.

Brown and Jones watched on.

Neo closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating, then pulled his hand free of the nervously sweating agent. He opened his eyes. On his hand was a single drop of blood.

Smith flickered and disappeared. A few assorted objects landed on the floor – a hammer, a packet of throat soothing lollies, a candle, a model car… the most irrelevant of random items.

Agents Brown and Jones glanced at each other once then exited the bodies they had inhabited. Two police guards crumpled against the wall, groaning with their headaches. They couldn't know what they had been present for.

A few seconds of near silence followed. Neo stood there, staring at the pile of objects.

"All of these are just various programs inside the agents," he explained, almost to himself. "They're the coding for the speed, strength, and quick-thinking of the agents, but to you they must look like clocks and magazines and stuff. And this," he added, looking at the drop of blood on his hand, "is the code that allowed Smith to be able to take big blows without being deleted. So I removed it and kind of wrecked his insides a little." He let the drop trickle off his hand and onto the candle.

Trinity stared at him. She had little to no idea what he was talking about but she didn't care. He was actually alive, standing there.

She didn't say anything, but took the two steps necessary to reach him and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a fierce hug. She touched the back of Neo's neck with one hand, lightly holding him still as she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, the kind one gives to someone they have been worried sick about. She tightened her grip and let her chin rest on his shoulder as he slid his arms around her and pressed his cheek against the side of her face. He was alive and everything was fine.

"Everything's okay," Neo said quietly. Trinity nodded, closing her eyes. She wasn't quite ready to let go.

"It will be," she answered. "Soon."

Neo nodded and squeezed her tightly, then let her go. Reluctantly she released him.

"Why did you say before that those things looked like clocks to _me_?" she asked. She nodded at the pile of random stuff.

"Because to me they're a whole jumble of green numbers and codes," he said. "Everything is. I can see the Matrix for what it really is now." He slung one arm around her shoulders in a matey sort of way and turned her around, leading her to room 303, which, to her minor surprise, didn't contain a ringing phone. "The Matrix doesn't have program language to display those, so it turns them into random-"

"You can see in code? Now that you've gone and died and then come back? You see everything here in code?" Trinity indicated the hall as she stepped into room 303. Neo nodded and continued looking around.

"Everything. It's all green and black. The walls, the floor, the stuff inside the walls… even you," he added, finally looking at her directly. But she wasn't sure how much she wanted his eyes on her now that she knew he wasn't actually seeing her.

"What do I look like?" Trinity asked, a little disappointed when he removed his arm from her shoulders upon reaching the exit. He hung it up and waited for it to ring back.

"Green." Neo smirked. "You look beautiful in green." He avoided her light shove. "I can see your pulse. It's fast. I can see into your head. Your thoughts."

"Don't look into my thoughts," she said, giving him another light push. He grinned. "They're private."

"Too late, I can see some stuff," Neo answered. He was teasing her.

"Like what?"

"You're in love."

Trinity was silent. Oh, well, it would have come out sooner or later. Again, for the third time.

"You're going to have to tell me who it is that you like so much," Neo said. He reached for the phone that lay on the table and had started ringing. "I'm going to tease you forever."

"I'm sure you will," she said, disappointment settling in. Again, for the third time.

"Hey, what are friends for?" Neo asked with a grin, picking up the receiver and holding it out to her.

"You first," she said, and he disappeared into it. After a moment, the phone dropped to the floor, bouncing on its cord. She replaced it, repeated Neo's words. "What are friends for?"

He hadn't seen whom it was that she loved. Maybe that wasn't written in her coded thoughts like the fact that she was in love did. Was that a good thing? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But even if Neo never knew, she would be in love with him for a very long time.

The exit rang again. She didn't hesitate. She wanted to see Neo and the others in the real world quickly. She answered it, and felt herself being sucked into reality.


	9. Changes

TITLE: Deja Vu

RATING: PG-13

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? The adventure is over but Neo still hasn't realised that Trinity loves him. Now, starting anew in Zion, is everything about to change for Neo?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hey guys! I'm considering whether I want this finished before or after Christmas, and whether I want it finished this year or next. I'm really surprised how fast I managed to upload this story once I'd reached the right point in time in my other fanfiction, The Best Homework Excuse Ever. Then again, these holidays I've only worked once, and that was for less than three hours – plus the power went out so we couldn't open the register. I've also been really bored, so uploading pre-written chapters has seemed like a good idea… very often. I mean, it's summer – therefore there's nothing good on TV. I've found a great radio station, though. If there's any Brisbane readers (which I doubt), tune into Nova 106.9, it's great.

Thanks to my reviewers, Rhiannon Reeves and Mystic Kyra.

Chapter nine – Changes

Four weeks after the disastrous rescue attempt, Neo was to be seen strolling down one of the pathways in Zion, the last human city. It was really an underground cavern updated to become livable with crude metal structuring. It was actually quite fascinating – there were a quarter of a million people living there in the various apartments, it was controlled entirely by machines, the only people of power were the councillors – there was no wealth status here, and no currency – and the people were nice. Everyone was helpful. Maybe a little too helpful. The fans and believers of the One were eager to show him the way if he got lost. The women were tracing his every step, and cast jealous looks at his female friends whenever he was with them.

For Neo spent a lot of time looking around the city, taking in the 'sights' with his friends as his guides. Lunar didn't often have time – she was usually with her daughter. Coyote and Specter had stuff to do, although they said hi if they bumped into him. Ghost and Niobe were happy to show him around when they had time, which was not very often, unfortunately, but Chase and Ari, who had spent only the last six months on board their ship and the previous three years here, were fun to hang around with. It turned out that they, also, had been freed in relation to a prophecy.

But of course, once the problems were over, Specter, as the ranking officer of the _Nadir_, got raised to the post of captain, and was off again, with the girls, Lunar and Coyote, as well as four new recruits. They wouldn't be back for months. The _Logos_ wasn't slow to leave, either, so all Neo had left in Zion were Mouse and Trinity, and a woman Trinity didn't like called Waterlily. Neo had met her in the mess hall. She had a habit of turning up whenever he least expected her. He had apologised to her when he had bumped her a little, but now she took that as an excuse to come visit him every single day. Trinity called her a 'leech', because there was 'obviously only one thing on her mind when it comes to you'. Neo didn't know what Waterlily wanted, but she did seem strongly attached to him already.

One person Neo didn't see enough of was Trinity. She was in trouble for her decision to go ahead and try to save Morpheus despite the obvious danger and impossibility of the task. The councillors had called her straight into an urgent meeting the second she had set foot in the city and she had been stuck arguing her case with them for weeks. Neo hoped they would hurry up and decide that she had been acting in loyalty to her captain. After all, that was all she had been doing. He hardly got to see her during the day. Sometimes she got time to visit in the evenings, but she was usually irritable, although she tried to be pleasant to him. She hadn't been visiting so often lately, even though the councillors were taking up less of her time, because of Waterlily. They really didn't get along.

Neo stopped and smirked at the memory of their first meeting in his apartment. He had invited Trinity in for a drink and a chat – that seemed to calm her stressful mind a little – and they were just jokingly discussing how best to dress up his new place when the door had opened. There stood Waterlily, smiling vibrantly, her curly brown hair spilling over her shoulders.

"Neo! How are you?" she had asked in her loud voice, beaming as she shut the door.

"Um, okay," he had replied uneasily. Trinity had raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.

"Who are you?" Waterlily had asked suddenly, upon spotting Trinity.

"I could ask the same," the other had said coolly.

"Trinity, Waterlily," Neo had spoken up quickly. Trinity's expression hadn't changed any, but Waterlily broke into another smile (false this time) and walked over.

"It's wonderful to meet you, Trinity," Waterlily had said, embracing Neo brightly and kissing his cheek. Neo recalled how Trinity's blue eyes narrowed. After five minutes of forced conversation, someone had been thoughtful enough to knock instead of barging right in, and Neo had gladly taken the excuse to get the hell out of that thick-aired, accident-waiting-to-happen room. One of the security guys stood there, asking if Trinity was here today. So Neo had gone back to retrieve her, only to find Waterlily standing beside her chair, her face bright crimson and fists clenched as she told Trinity (who no doubt had started the argument) exactly what she thought of her past history with Neo. Of course, Trinity hadn't moved, still sitting relaxedly in her chair, her cool, placid expression leaving no doubt as to who it was that would win this argument in the long run. She had just sipped her drink randomly, gazing up at the ranting Zion woman with mild interest. Her coolness and obvious ability to take anything and not become intimidated only infuriated Waterlily more.

Waterlily was just saying something like, "And if you think you two are _so close_, then why is it that-" when Trinity spotted Neo and rolled her eyes. She had stood, shoving the Zion-born aside with the hand containing her glass.

"Neo, sweetheart, would you be kind enough to please ask this woman to stop screaming in my face?" she had asked, waving her glass to emphasise her words. She had walked over with a natural grace meant to be envied, and stopped at Neo's side. "Who was it?"

Neo, who had been busy trying to figure out Trinity's casual use of the name 'sweetheart', which she had never called him before, jerked his head at the door. She'd looked and sighed.

"I guess I'll be off then. I am so sick of these meetings." She turned and smiled sleekly at Waterlily. "It was wonderful to meet you, Waterlily," she had mimicked from before. She turned to Neo and gave him a tight, entirely fake but well acted hug and kissed him beside his mouth. It wasn't a romantic moment – just another envy device fabricated to cause her one-woman audience jealousy. Because Waterlily couldn't see that the kiss was _beside_ the mouth. With a wave, she had left the glass in Neo's hand and followed the council security guy to what Neo called the 'pointless argument chamber'.

That was three weeks ago. Neo was currently destined for Trinity's apartment right now, where she had said she would be this afternoon. Mouse would be there, too.

He gave vague smiles to a small group of middle-aged women who giggled and said hi, then started walking again and looked around. He knew this pathway well – the way to and from Trinity's to and from his own place. It was his most tread path after the way to the mess hall. He couldn't get lost on those pathways.

Finally, Trinity's level. He walked along the long, open corridor to her room and knocked on the door. Mouse answered it, smiling.

"Hey, Neo, haven't seen you in days," he said, moving aside to let him in. He shut the door behind him.

"I've been about," he assured the younger boy. "It isn't like I can just pack up and leave for another city, is it?"

"I guess not," Mouse agreed, turning and walking further into the little living area. He had always been such a bouncy thing, with bubbly new ideas and fun, if stupid, revelations. Now he seemed aged innumerably, tired and wearied.

"Where is she?" Neo asked, looking around. Mouse nodded in the general direction of the bed in the corner, which Trinity half-sat, half-lay on, propped up by her flat pillows. She was reading something on the computer on her lap, not paying even the slightest attention to her guests. Not that that would bother her at all.

She completely ignored Neo and Mouse as they walked up to her – of course, she was probably aware of their presence – so they jumped onto the bed either side of her, jolting her.

Lucky she had a sense of humour.

"You know, this is important," she said, trying but failing to be angry. She accidentally smiled.

"So are you," Neo answered, copying Mouse's action of slinging one arm around Trinity's shoulders. She didn't object, but gave them both suspicious looks. "You're all worn out and bored. Have some fun."

"Does that stuff need to be done _right now_?" Mouse added.

"It would be nice if it was out of my way."

"Come on, unwind," Mouse said, attempting to persuade her. "You're too young to have a stress-related heart attack. Neo and me would be lost. Who's gonna boss us around when you die?"

"And who, exactly, decided that I was going to die right here and now?" Trinity demanded, evidently annoyed that they had so quickly and easily written her off as a fatal medical emergency waiting to happen. She shut down the computer and Mouse took it. He stashed it on the floor.

"Well, look at you," he said, righting himself and replacing his arm. "Don't die. We need you. What are we going to do? Without Morpheus, you're the only one capable of giving us orders."

"And who's going to do that if you die?" Neo agreed, grinning and lying back, staring at the ceiling. Mouse, who seemed to think that it would de-stress Trinity, mainly led the amusing conversation. Neo just added in little bits here and there.

"Why am I dying?" Trinity asked.

"Because you're _stressed_," Mouse said in a duh-what-do-you-think voice. "Everyone knows that brings on heart attacks and strokes, and stuffs up your appetite." He poked her in the side, making her flinch and tense for a moment, much to the boy's amusement. "You'll get fat. Don't hit me!" He avoided her slap as best he could. "And suppresses your libido," Mouse added, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Hey, if you feel a need to see if that's true, you know, this is a bed-"

He didn't get to finish because she pushed him off the bed in semi-pretend disgust. Neo laughed, amazed at how much fun he could have in a city where there were no televisions and so soon after so many close workmates had died. At least Trinity and Mouse were still here.

With Mouse practically convulsing on the floor with laughter, Trinity turned to Neo, her hands ready to shove him off, too.

"Don't you even start!" she said through her smile and light laughter. It was really nice to hear her laugh. Neo shook his head, trying to stop laughing. She relaxed against his arm.

Suddenly, for the first time _ever_, Neo was incredibly conscious of the closeness of Trinity to himself. He had no idea what had sparked it. Usually the fact that she was so close would be nothing more than a privilege of being a friend of the hardest-to-reach girl he knew. But today, it was like every single point on his body that touched hers was twice as sensitive as usual.

Why now, and never before? What had changed, if anything?

Neo wanted to hit himself when he thought of Mouse's words and managed to conjoin them with the names Neo and Trinity. That wasn't right. Since when did he think like that? Something was off.

-

She felt Neo suddenly tense a little. Not much, not enough for anyone else to notice, even if they were as close as Trinity was to him, but enough for someone paying as much attention to that closeness to notice.

Was he okay? Maybe she should sit forward again. He had just tensed after she had laid back. What did that mean? She hoped nothing had changed. She liked being able to lie here, on her _bed_ with _Neo_, if anyone could take that meaning, without any intention but to talk with her friends. It gave her an opportunity to be very close to Neo without him ever noticing. Even if the current topic was her own death by stress-related heart failure, she could lie here for hours, content. More than content, really.

But now Neo was silent and thoughtful. He wasn't laughing any more. Mouse was just struggling to his feet, laughing hysterically. He rolled back onto the bed, closed eyes filled with tears of mirth.

He mumbled something impossible to decipher while Trinity kind of ignored him and looked up to her right at Neo.

"You okay?" she asked, being sure to keep her smile. Neo appeared to like seeing her happy. Mouse reached over her and slapped Neo's arm, still chuckling.

"Yeah, man, what's up? Where'd the smiles go?"

"I'm fine," Neo said. But he felt uncomfortable. And if Neo was uncomfortable, so was she. Trinity sat up, twisting to look him directly in the face. She had rubbed the fact that she knew Neo better than anyone else in the real world in that leech Waterlily's face, but she wished she knew him better. Then maybe she would be able to figure out what had just happened.

"Are you sure?" she asked, almost warily. If something was up, she wanted to know.

Neo forced a smile and said, "I'm fine," again.

Realising that the lying-chatting-on-the-bed part of the afternoon was well and truly over, Trinity swung her legs over the side of the bed – Neo's side – and stood. Her two male visitors took her example and got up, too.

"Have you got any of Dozer's old stuff here?" Mouse asked hopefully. Trinity gave a soft groan.

"Yes, I do, but that drink is absolutely vile," she said, walking over to the cabinet anyway. Dozer had made some of the most disgusting of alcoholic drinks. She would give almost anything to have him and the others alive again, but at least now she wouldn't have to accept quantities of his beverages.

"It wasn't so bad if you took smaller mouthfuls," Neo protested slightly, dropping into one of the chairs at the table.

"Yeah, right," Trinity agreed sarcastically, pouring three mugs.

The afternoon carried on into the evening. Trinity, who hated the drink, didn't come close to losing her head. Neither did Neo, who was much too responsible to take in so much brain killing liquid in one day. But they both knew it was time to stop refilling Mouse's drinks when he suggested, again, that Trinity sleep with him. Usually she would have pushed him over or worse, but the boy was drunk and wouldn't be able to get up again. They needed him conscious so they could take him home.

Between them, Trinity and Neo managed to escort Mouse to his room one level down. Once they had him safely on his own bed (Trinity standing a few feet away) Neo locked the boy's door.

"I think the councillors are going to give me a break," Trinity said, leaning against the wall beside Mouse's door. She ran her finger along a groove, but she got a major flashback of Cypher doing the same thing outside Neo's cabin on board the _Nebuchadnezzar_ weeks ago. She wondered vaguely where he was now, then wondered why she cared. He was a murderous traitor, and if she ever spotted him inside the Matrix, content and blissfully unaware of everything he had done wrong, she would kill him herself.

"What do you mean? Like, let you off?" Neo asked.

"Yeah. At least, I hope so," Trinity lied. She knew exactly what was going on with the councillors. They had agreed that she was simply a very loyal person who should be commended for her bravery, like her witnesses, Neo and Mouse among them, had argued weeks ago. She was off charges, and what's more, she had been raised to the position of captain. But she couldn't say that.

"That's great. Then you won't be all caught up. Or stressed out."

"Don't even start," she warned with a small smile. She stared out at the city. Neo did the same. "Hey, Neo?" she added. He turned back to her. "Tell me – do you like it in Zion?"

"Yeah, I guess I do," he answered after a moment. "I could get used to living here." He cocked his head to one side – so cute. "Why?"

"No reason," Trinity said. She gave another small smile and turned away, heading back to her own room. As soon as Neo couldn't see her face, she dropped her smile and frowned, realising what she had to do now. "No reason at all."


	10. Conclusions

TITLE: Deja Vu

RATING: PG-13

SUMMARY/ORIENTATION: Alternative universe – what would have happened if the black cat HADN'T deja-vu-ed itself? A completely different course of events… But will it lead to the same result as the movie? Back in Zion now, Neo is falling for Trinity… but what is she planning?

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well guys, this is it – the final chapter! Thanks to everyone who has read this all the way through, and particularly to those who have reviewed loyally – it means a lot to me, so thanks zillions for your encouragement.

Now that this project is over, I am going to be spending more time focusing on my other fanfiction, _The Best Homework Excuse Ever_, co-written with Lady Delerith. Because I need more to do, I'll start uploading another prewritten AU Matrix fic of mine. It's called _In The Walls_ and the first chapter should be up by the end of January. This one is also alternative universe (I have a distinct attachment to AUs) and is about what would have happened if, when Morpheus gave Trinity the order to go and escape from the bathroom with the others, she disobeyed and went back for him, preventing his capture but getting apprehended in his place. I don't think it's as good as this one (I'm quite proud of _Deja Vu_) but I'll let my readers be the judge of that.

Because I enjoy having too much stuff to write over the holidays, I'm curious to know if there's anyone else out there who would be interested in co-writing a Matrix fanfiction with me. I really enjoy the project Lady Delerith and I have been working on for the last couple of years, and I feel that it gives the stories a little more depth when there's more than one author pouring in their talents. If you're interested, say so in a review, and I'll contact you, or email me from my profile page.

Chapter ten – Conclusions

The next morning, Neo finally decided what he had to do. He had to tell her. He had spent the morning and most of last night trying to sort out his feelings. Now he knew what they were, but he wasn't happy with the result.

There could be no doubt about his emotions when it came to Trinity: his body wanted her, his mind needed her, and his soul loved her. He had already known that he loved her – she was like his sister, right? – but he hadn't known to what extent. Now suddenly she was like a drug he needed. He had to be close to her to feel… well, anything.

And the question he kept asking himself was, 'what had sparked it?' Why was it that all of a sudden Neo felt like this? Why did he suddenly want his best friend? What was he going to say to her? 'Oh, hi, Trinity, I've suddenly realised that I've come to rely on your occasional stage kisses for my daily buzz'?

Shit, he was in trouble. He wandered slowly towards her place, but she wasn't there, so he started searching Zion. After a few hours of useless hunting, he went home.

He groaned upon spotting Waterlily outside his door. The last person he needed to see right now. She saw him walking over and broke into one of her beaming smiles.

"Neo!" she exclaimed. God, why hadn't Neo noticed before how loud she was? Why couldn't all women be as quiet and intense as Trinity?

And why was Neo automatically making excuses to think of her?

"Hi," he answered, letting himself into his apartment ahead of her. "Nice day?"

"I was so worried I'd missed you," Waterlily said, ignoring his question. "When I found out you were all leaving today, I was so shocked! I mean, you hadn't even told me you were going."

"I-"

"I know, you were probably out looking for me," she said loudly, smiling again. She smiled too much. Not like Trinity, who only smiled sparingly. It made every rare smile that much more special.

Trinity invades his thoughts again.

"What are you-"

"Well, I'm here now, and all I can say is, I'll miss you, you know. And you'd better be careful. That's a dangerous job you've got there. Is it really the job for you? I'm just amazed they gave that _woman_ captaincy. She's completely inexperienced – you can tell from the way she brags. I don't think very much of her – you should be careful. I don't want you coming back all battered and hurt because of her bad captainship. Okay?"

"Where am I going? My captain is dead, remember?" Neo said, frowning. What the hell was Waterlily on about now?

"Today. You're leaving. Remember?" the Zion woman said clearly.

"No. I'm not going anywhere."

"But… But the _Nebuchadnezzar_ is leaving today," Waterlily said, a little less confident in her information.

"No, it isn't," Neo assured her. "I don't think the councillors have even decided what to do with the ship yet."

"What are you talking about? They arranged for your hovercraft to leave this afternoon, like, two days ago. The craft and the crew are leaving _today_."

"What are _you_ talking about?" Neo demanded. "Who's got control over the ship?"

"She hasn't told you," Waterlily realised suddenly.

"Who hasn't told me what?"

"She didn't tell you she was leaving. I got the impression she at least thought enough of you to let you know when she was going." Waterlily shook her head sadly. "I knew she was a bitch the minute I met her here. That's so sad – you seem really close to her, too."

"Would you please explain to me what's going on?" Neo asked, getting annoyed.

"Don't worry," she answered a moment later, turning to face him, smiling. "At least now you don't have to go anywhere. I'm so glad." She moved close, too close to him. Were she Trinity, Neo would be currently trying his best not to kiss her.

Waterlily was talking about Trinity.

She reached up and touched his mouth with one finger. She straightened and leaned in for her kiss. Neo willed himself to stay still – she was an attractive woman and he had to see if he'd fall for her like he had Trinity. But at the last moment he turned his face away, and Waterlily only kissed the side of his mouth instead of full on the lips. Her closed brown eyes flashed open in surprise.

"What happened?" she asked, pulling her face back but not moving away.

"You're nice, but you don't want me," Neo assured her.

"Yes, I do."

"No, you want someone who can kiss you without thinking of someone else." Neo took a step back. "I know you can't like the thought that I'm not thinking of you."

"Well, you're right about that," Waterlily said haughtily. "Who are you so obsessed with, then? Even if you aren't remotely interested in me, I'm still your friend. It's _her_, isn't it? Tell me-"

Neo was spared listening to her rant by a sharp knock on the door. He opened it quickly. All of his searching had been for nothing – Trinity had found him.

"Good afternoon," he said, relieved. He forgot about Waterlily's weird talk about the ship leaving and smiled at her.

"Hello," she answered. Waterlily, standing in front of Neo, turned on her heel and approached Trinity with a raised hand.

"I can't believe you'd just leave him here!" she snapped, releasing her open hand to slap her 'competition' across the cheek. But Trinity, with her super-fast reflexes, caught her by the wrist. Neo doubted if even he could have been quick enough to avoid her catching him.

Like usual, Trinity's expressionless mask never slipped. She didn't say anything, but rolled her eyes and shoved the other woman aside, releasing her. She still didn't come inside.

"Neo, we need to talk," she said. Waterlily turned furiously.

"You didn't even tell him anything!" she accused. "He has no idea."

"What do you think I'm here for?" Trinity asked coldly. "I think maybe you should go."

"Excuse me?" Waterlily wasn't happy with that, either. She turned to Neo for support. So did Trinity.

"Maybe she's right," he said quietly. Silently fuming, Waterlily pushed past both of them and left, muttering darkly to herself. Neo walked up to the doorframe and leaned past his friend/interest, watching the Zion-born woman leave the hall.

He looked back at Trinity.

"You want to come in?"

"No. Thanks. I need to talk to you, though," she said. "Do you have time?"

"Always have time here," Neo said. "What's on your mind?"

If something was bothering her he wanted to be the one to fix it.

"I think you might know part of the story now from your little friend," she said dryly.

Waterlily had said all of that stuff about the _Nebuchadnezzar_ leaving Zion.

"This is about the ship, isn't it?" He waited while she nodded slowly. "What's this about it leaving?"

"I haven't been entirely honest with you, Neo," Trinity said, "and for that, I'm sorry. The councillors cleared me of all charges laid against me and granted me captaincy of the _Neb._"

"That's a good thing," Neo said, leaning on the doorframe.

"I guess it is," she agreed. "Last night when you and Mouse came over I was on the computer, remember? I was filling out the forms about how many I'd be taking and things like that. The councillors didn't give me much time to make up my mind – they made their decision three days ago and told me to be ready to leave with my crew by today."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Neo asked, turning back into the apartment. "I have to pack."

"No, don't." Trinity reached out and grabbed his arm. "Hear me out." When Neo nodded and turned to face her again, she continued. "I should have told you days ago, and I feel like crap for leaving you hanging like this. But you're too inexperienced to stay on board."

"So you're going? Just like that? You're just going to leave me here alone? Why?" Neo tried his best not to sound demanding.

"I'll get to why in a moment," she said. She dragged her gaze away from his eyes and studied the floor at their feet. "I'm so sorry. I don't have a lot of time. The dock guards weren't very happy with me when I said that I had to go and say goodbye to someone _right now_. I left Mouse in charge of finishing up."

"Wait a sec – Mouse? Mouse is going, too? Hey, if I'm inexperienced, what is he? So suddenly I'm of no importance and he's overly experienced?"

"No, Neo, I didn't say that," Trinity said. "You're reading between the lines. I never said Mouse was experienced in this line of work, and I never said you weren't important. What ever made you think you didn't matter to me?"

Neo didn't answer. It was true – she hadn't said that. But still.

"I must have missed something, Trinity," he said. "I thought that a month ago you and I risked our lives for our captain. Together. I guess I figured that since I saved your ass so many times that day there would be some sort of lasting bond. But maybe not."

"Neo, don't make me out to be a complete bitch. Don't make this harder for me."

"When are you leaving?" he asked finally. She looked around.

"Now, more or less. I have to be gone within half an hour." She met his eyes and forced a sad smile. He hated that look in her eyes. Trinity was really sad. She was truly upset about this, not acting or anything. "I hate goodbyes."

"Then why are you here?" Neo asked, examining the doorframe and running one finger along the grooves. "You could have asked a dock guard to come and tell me, and you might never have needed to come and find me. You could have been gone by now if you hadn't come here, and I would never have known until the guard came and told me. You could have avoided this whole awkward conversation. Why aren't you gone already?"

"I had to tell you myself," Trinity answered, a certain degree of hurt in her voice. For her, the very notion that he didn't expect her to have the decency to say something to his face was deeply offensive. She did have the guts to come here in the first place – that was something. The young woman he was so attracted to lately might have been leaving him without much warning but she was still the same, overly decent person. She held his gaze and frowned, offended.

"I know," Neo said, forcing himself to soften. "Will you tell me why, now?"

"I'm leaving with the _Nebuchadnezzar_ and my crew in half an hour." Trinity looked down again. "The council wanted me to have a crew of about seven, but I only filed for five, including myself and Mouse. There are three new recruits. I wanted three – but at first I wanted one of them to be you. And don't do that," she added, taking his wrist in her hand and gently pulling it away from the doorframe.

"Why?" Neo asked. She released his hand.

"It reminds me of Cypher," she answered. "Anyway, I decided that it wouldn't be fair to ask you along. You'd feel too obligated to Morpheus, and I wasn't about to force anyone, least of all you, into anything you didn't _really_ want to do. Then you said that you really liked Zion and wanted to stay so that kind of sealed my decision."

"Stop," Neo said, holding her gaze firmly. His heart gave a jolt of misery at the mention of Morpheus. It was hard to accept that he was dead. "Stop that. Now who's reading between the lines? I never said I wanted to stay. Never. I said I could get used to it. But I couldn't live here without any friends, Trinity."

"You make friends better than anyone I know," Trinity said, shaking her head. "Besides, you have your leech friend, Tigerlily or whatever. She made it pretty clear to me that she wanted me out of your life."

"What are you talking about? I'll be lucky if she ever comes back after the way we've treated her between us." When Trinity looked confused, Neo added, "I let her know I wasn't interested. She wasn't pleased."

"She didn't look it, either," Trinity agreed. She looked down again. "I'm really sorry I didn't say anything earlier. But I didn't want to give you time to try and dissuade me. I'm sorry, Neo. Really, I am. I really hate myself right now. Although, I was expecting an explosion on your behalf. I expected you to go off at me – hit me. But this is worse." She took a deep breath. "I guess I'll go, then."

"Bye," Neo answered in a flat tone. She swallowed.

"Bye," she repeated. She turned to go.

"Wait, one more thing," Neo said, stopping her. No way was he going to tell her what she meant to him, not now. It wouldn't matter much now, anyway. But he could still draw on a quick favour. "When we were in the Matrix last month. I said I could see your thoughts."

"I remember," Trinity answered, straightening a little.

"I could see that you were in love. After I noticed I ignored it – it isn't my business. So I didn't find out who it was that you love." He searched her eyes, looking for answers. "Tell me: Are you leaving me here so that I'll never find out? If I don't go back into the Matrix with you I can never know. Is that it?"

"Who do you think it is, anyway, that I'd be so desperate to hide from you?" Trinity asked.

Neo hadn't really considered this, but took a wild, unlikely guess. "Mouse?"

"No," she said, breaking eye contact and watching the floor. "I'm leaving _you_ here because a good captain shouldn't spend half of her time thinking about one of her crewmembers."

There was a moment of dead silence in which Neo stared at her, and Trinity went rigid and looked up at him in horror. While Neo allowed this thought to zap through his head, she spun on her heel and bolted. But she didn't get far. He realised quite suddenly the meaning of her words and his fast reflexes let him reach out and catch her by the waist. Before she could react, he turned her around and pinned her to the stone wall between his door and his neighbour's.

She breathed heavily through her mouth as she tried to even out the thudding of her heart.

"What did you say?" Neo asked her. He ignored the fact that he was pressed against her and stared at her. Trinity looked deeply surprised that she had been caught.

"Let me go," she said uncertainly. She was never uncertain.

"That isn't what you said."

"I'm telling you to let go of me," she said. She took a deeper breath. "I'm ordering you to."

"You aren't my superior officer any more," Neo said, letting his eyes flicker over her face. Hell, she was beautiful.

"Fine. You're hired. Now you're under my command again. Step away and let go, then I'll fire you."

"Are you going to have me arrested?" Neo knew she wouldn't.

"No."

"Why would you be thinking of one of your crewmembers if I came along?" Neo asked.

"Read between the lines," Trinity said, annoyed. "What do you think I'm implying? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to leave Zion so that I can avoid you for the rest of my life."

She loved him. Trinity loved Neo. God, was it possible? Was it possible that the woman he cared for so much could love him? The very thought made Neo fall for her further. He had missed the warnings…

How could he have missed so many signs that she liked him?

"So what you told Cypher – you weren't acting?"

"No, I wasn't. I'm not that great of an actor," she said quietly. She did love Neo, then. Why had he ignored that escapade? Like she would have willingly kissed someone she didn't have feelings for…

"Trinity, I spent my entire morning looking for you," he told her.

"I was at the docks, trying to decide how to tell you I was going."

"I had to find you because I wanted to tell you something I figured out last night," Neo said clearly but in a low voice. "I had to say that I care about you. You can't go. I need you." Pause. "I love you."

"I don't believe you," Trinity murmured stubbornly. But after a few seconds, her eyes showed that she did. She couldn't believe him, but she wanted to. She had to.

Neo took one hand away from her waist and touched her cheek affectionately. He leaned forward for a quick peck on the lips. When he pulled away a second later, he paused a millimetre away from her lips.

"Now do you believe me?" he whispered against her mouth. She leaned back as far as she could, which wasn't far because she was pressed against a wall, and met his eyes.

"I don't know. Sometimes I think I know you. Sometimes the only thing I know is that you're Neo. The One."

"Sometimes I'm not certain of that," Neo admitted.

"Oh, I am," Trinity said. She ran one hand up his arm to his shoulder, where it stayed. "I know you are. The Oracle told me that Morpheus would free a man from the Matrix and I would fall in love. She said that the man I loved would be the One. That's how I know."

"I love you. I'm going to miss you like crazy," Neo said, stroking her cheek.

"Why bother? I can easily get you a place on the ship," Trinity whispered, her pulse speeding up again with anticipation. "I made up those excuses. I just realised that I can't leave you behind."

"Tell me you love me," Neo murmured against her skin, his mouth millimetres from her cheek. She shivered.

"I have. Multiple times."

"Not in those words."

"Yes, I have. When you died I told you that you couldn't be dead because I love you," Trinity said in a low voice loaded with excitement.

"Tell me again. You know I get my daily high from this, don't you?" Neo smiled.

Trinity laughed.

She went silent and stared at him. Neo leaned his face away to meet her eyes. She had the prettiest eyes.

"Oh my God, I love you!" she cried hurriedly, wrapping one hand around his neck before he kissed her. She kept herself as close as she could, kissing him back passionately. Neo pulled her closer, his hand tight on her waist. A week ago, he wouldn't have even considered making out with Trinity in full view of anyone who cared to walk down to this level.

But now he couldn't care less. As long as he could be this close to her he was okay.

-

Those stupid dock security men had sent Mouse looking for Trinity. One of the new recruits had backed out of the deal, which meant that they would have to find someone to take his place really fast.

Mirage and Lazuli were still on, at least, but the other one had decided at the last moment that his peaceful life here in Zion was too important to give up on.

Mouse headed directly for Neo's apartment. That's where Trinity had been headed herself. That was sure to be where she had stayed overtime. Maybe Neo had gone off at her for not explaining earlier. For days, Mouse had been begging Trinity to tell Neo about the journey, but she hadn't.

The elevator stopped at Neo's level and Mouse got out. He wandered slowly, taking in the last of Zion he would see for a while.

He spotted Trinity and Neo out of the corner of his eye and figured they were hugging each other goodbye. But Mouse stopped dead when he turned his complete gaze upon them.

Ha – he'd known for ages now that they were perfect for each other, but it had taken them a while to figure it out themselves. Finally. They were in the middle of a make-out session Mouse wasn't about to interrupt.

Trinity, whom he was looking for, was pressed between Neo and the wall, but for once, helplessness wasn't an issue she was going to protest against. She looked too busy kissing Neo, and he her, to notice or care.

It looked like they'd found their last-minute recruit.

THE END

Thanks readers!


End file.
